I am so embarrassed by my home province sometimes.

[sylvia_rachel]

Words of dubious wisdom from Iris Evans, Alberta's minister of finance & enterprise, on the "sacrifices" her children have made in order to "raise their children properly":

"They've understood perfectly well that when you're raising children you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise."

Thank you, Ms Evans. Thank you for

Comments

[undergroundsea]

One of our Green politicians brought their child into the Senate last night. It cried and was ejected from the chamber. The talkback on the radio has brought out a lot of Ms Evan's breed.

[sylvia_rachel]

Well, I don't know that I'd take a baby into Parliament. Not mine, anyway -- she'd have been ejected within 30 seconds :P

But sometimes needs must ...

Really, though, it's the class issue that pisses me off most, the idea that all you need is not to be stupid with your money and you will magically be able to afford not just the house, car, and maxed-out RRSPs but also the 1950s-style stay-at-home parenting. (Because, really: if Ms Evans's kids have all this stuff, how exactly have they made financial sacrifices?) Very true if you started out with lots of money; less true if you, well, didn't.

Oh, and also, Ms Evans: lack of stay-at-home parenting causes mental illness? Really? And you are qualified to make this statement how??

[undergroundsea]

:) It was a special circumstance as it turned out. We have a system where the Senate has bells to call a vote and if you don't front up in time they close the doors on you and you cannot come in. I don't know how this is democratic but I suppose it saves time and it gives people an excuse if they feel unable to vote. We've had a few incidents over the last couple of years where people have conveniently gone missing

[undergroundsea]

Logging in would be handy :)

[scbutler]

A rather brain-dead comment. And here I've always thought Canada was more PC than the States.

[sylvia_rachel]

Well, mostly we are. But then there's Alberta.

It's not the sexism of her comments that gets me. (She never actually says it's the women who should be home with the kids, although I suspect that's what she had in mind.) It's the class thing -- the complete failure to understand how people with less money and privilege live.

It's one thing to have one parent stay home when the choices are (a) both parents work and we can afford to go skiing at Chamonix or (b) only one parent works and we can only afford to go skiing at Whistler. (And even then I won't diss the parents who decide they still both want to work. Kids don't, pace Ms Evans, grow up delinquent or mentally ill just because both of their parents worked. Sorry, no.) It's a whole other thing to make that decision when the choices are (a) both parents work and we can afford to pay our rent/mortgage and buy clothing and groceries or (b) one parent works and we have to start using the food bank

[scbutler]

It's absolutely a class issue. I don't know about Canada, but feminism in the US became all about the needs of professional women sometime over the last 20 years. There have been some interesting pieces in The Atlantic about this by Caitlin Flanagan and Sandra Tsing Loh over the last five years - Ms Magazine goes apoplectic every time. But your analysis is dead on.

It should be pointed out that plenty of women worked before 1965. Women in the workforce is only a new thing for women of a certain class.

[sylvia_rachel]

It should be pointed out that plenty of women worked before 1965. Women in the workforce is only a new thing for women of a certain class.

Yes, indeed.

I continue to cling to a species of feminism that just wants women to have choices and other women to support them in those choices. (Like, by not loudly and publicly dissing either the ones who stay home with the kids or the ones who don't.) Part of that is recognizing that, guess what? Lots of women still don't have very many choices, or any choices at all, or the choices they have are really unpalatable.

I wish we could all just be honest about it. Some parents want to work, and some would rather be at home with the kids; some are better parents when they're working; some families can afford for one parent to stay home, and some can't; but everybody is just trying to do the best they can, for themselves and their particular families, with the circumstances they've got. Staying home with the kids does not ipso facto make you a better parent, nor does it ipso facto make you a

[scbutler]

"I continue to cling to a species of feminism that just wants women to have choices and other women to support them in those choices."

That says it all. Which makes me wonder about all the folks who insist on judging those choices.

[anonymous]

Wow... this reminds me so much of the many, many articles I read in the Alberta Report as a kid about how women need to be at home with the kids and how it's pure selfishness for females to want careers...

Also - my fave - an article on how one mom provided a "Christian witness" to her child's classmates by talking to them about being a stay-at-home mom. As a Christian woman, that just makes me cringe.

[sylvia_rachel]

Also - my fave - an article on how one mom provided a "Christian witness" to her child's classmates by talking to them about being a stay-at-home mom. As a Christian woman, that just makes me cringe.

No way!!!!

... but wait, you said Alberta Report. So, yeah, totally plausible.

[anonymous]

The Alberta Report was one big "No Way!" in every issue... So tragic it folded, no?

[sylvia_rachel]

It folded? I didn't know ...

Maybe they just ran out of outrage!