As the UK General Election draws ever nearer, we can expect to see some desperate attempts from the Conservative Party to paint the last 14 years as a success story for Tory policy. But one effort last week from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions set the bar pretty high for delusional framing.
Mel Stride <a href="https://twitter.com/meljstride/status/1749379215605027184?s=46&t=JVOpWT3eg6wQEPoknIdgYw"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">boasted</mark></a> that there are “two million more women in work since 2010, alongside record female employment and job levels”. This, he <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1858262/women-give-huge-lift-to-workforce"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">concludes</mark></a>, “shows [the government’s] plan is working”.
What plan might this be, one wonders? Is it a plan to ensure women feel fulfilled? Or a plan to help women achieve a greater sense of work-life balance? Alas, it is not. Cajoling more women into the workplace is done <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1858262/women-give-huge-lift-to-workforce"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">in the name of</mark></a> boosting the labour market, closing the gender employment gap, and growing the economy. How terribly considerate…
The Government’s 2024 Back to Work Plan may “break down barriers to work”, as Mel Stride <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1858262/women-give-huge-lift-to-workforce"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">claims</mark></a>, but it erects barriers to family life and the prioritisation of children’s care.
Once <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-jeremy-hunts-childcare-revolution-really-something-to-celebrate/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">again</mark></a>, the Conservatives take delight in reducing women to their economic output, and show little to no regard for the contribution of stay-at-home mothers, carers and grandparents.
Thankfully, the Catholic Faith helps us understand that life holds more meaning than national GDP and the office grind; that parents are entrusted with the formation of souls – and under pain of sin should they neglect this duty. Our eternal destination reminds us that the blessing and burden of raising children far outweighs the highs and lows of mainstream employment.
Pope John Paul II <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19950526_mongella-pechino.html"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">wrote</mark></a>: “It is a disservice not only to children, but also to women and society itself, when a woman is made to feel guilty for wanting to remain in the home and nurture and care for her children.” Addressing the impact at the societal level, he added: “A mother’s presence in the family, so critical to the stability and growth of that basic unity of society, should instead be recognised, applauded and supported in every possible way.”
The Conservatives would do well to heed the words of this great pope. Many women <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/uk-families-weekly-quality-time-b1941948.html"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">wish</mark></a> they spent more time, not less, with their children. Facilitating this choice might lead to more support for the Tory party (which is facing an extremely tough forthcoming general election – also known as being trounced). But instead, in the meantime, the Conservatives continue to betray women’s preferences by pushing to increase their employment rates, which is only made possible by <mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06546/">raising the pension age</a> </mark>or widening access to childcare – the ultimate sheep in wolf’s clothing when it comes to giving women a "choice" in how to care for their children.
The extension of free childcare makes the option to stay home with one’s family financially nonsensical. Even if one can afford to operate a single income household, the salary sacrifice incurred by rejecting free or subsidised childcare support makes any household comparatively poorer against those that do utilise the free hours; the material sacrifice can be considerable.
And thus emerges the lamentable situation that we are in where a mother feels guilty for choosing to remain at home with children instead of clocking hours in a formal workplace.
In Ireland, moves are afoot to rewrite the Irish Constitution and do away with the <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/another-attack-on-womanhood/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">rights of mothers</mark></a> not to be “obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home". Far from advancing women’s rights, the removal of this clause <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/maintenance-fears-over-axing-womens-place-clause-v80g732gc"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">could</mark></a> weaken the guarantee of social welfare that presently supports many mothers. How’s that for progress?
Mothers who stay at home should not feel guilty for falling outside of the Government’s celebrated data points or defying limited definitions of empowerment. Their roles might not show for much on spreadsheets at the Department for Work and Pensions, but the value of mothers embedded in their homes and families exceeds any potential uptick in GDP.
The social capital contributed by this unsung maternal cohort is immeasurable. From raising secure and happy children in stable homes, to engaging in community projects and caring for members of the wider family, stay-at-home mothers play a vital role in any well ordered society.
So although a woman’s place is not <em>necessarily</em> in the home, it ought to be should she so desire it.
It’s time politicians <em>also</em> celebrated those women. <br><br><em>Photo: A grandmother teaching her granddaughter to make cup cakes. (Photo credit <a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/jacoblund?mediatype=photography">jacoblund</a>; iStock by Getty Images.)</em>
