FURTHER TO the opinion article published in issue 83 of the Human Resources magazine (28 June 2005), I would like to relay my response to Susan Borg for her ridiculous attempt at a comparison between a working mother and a single woman with no children
FURTHER TO the opinion article published in issue 83 of the Human Resources magazine (28 June 2005), I would like to relay my response to Susan Borg for her ridiculous attempt at a comparison between a working mother and a single woman with no children.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate her on finding the time in her day to sit with friends and have a few gin and tonics to discuss their plight – time I as a working mother do not have given the responsibilities of collecting children from day care, feeding, bathing and bedding them.
Secondly, I am offended that she gripes about the cost to herself for the paid maternity leave, tax benefits and childcare rebates given to families with children. Who does she anticipate will be wiping her dribble and tending to her sponge baths when she is confined to a nursing home in her old age? I suspect it will be mine or someone else’s children – those of us who have bothered to breed – given the worrying trend in population growth currently occurring. These same children will be funding her old age in terms of access to healthcare, seniors cards and other forms of assistance offered to the elderly – when she does indeed reach the twilight years – what goes around comes around.
Thirdly, I am quite confident that Ms Borg has never had to juggle the demands of a household, children and work, sometimes resulting in the regrettable need for children to enter the workplace on occasion. I suspect all Ms Borg has to worry about at the end of the day is which restaurant to go to for dinner that night, or which pair of stockings best match her highly priced suit for work the next day. No stresses about meeting a work deadline whilst battling two children who have been up half the night with ear infections and trying to arrange alternate childcare arrangements because there is no way you can take time off work to care for them and the childcare centre is not a good place for them to be whilst sick, so you are relying on the assistance of friends and family to help out. I suspect Ms Borg’s uninterrupted night’s sleep is far more comfortable and she wakes refreshed for the day ahead.
If she can come up with a viable solution for parents who have no economic choice but to return to work. With childcare costing on average of $250 dollars per week (I suspect the same amount she spent on drinks whilst moaning to her friends about how hard done by she is) then I would love to hear it.
In the meantime I suggest she shuts up and stops her whining. I have been both a single working woman and a working mother – and I can tell you which is the easier route. Unfortunately, it is clear to me that Ms Borg has no idea of the complexities of balancing raising a family and working. Many people are doing it partner-less; hasn’t she seen the latest divorce statistics?
Otherwise she might find herself being poked particularly hard with the flu needle in her old age, by those very children she is begrudging at present –who may well grow up to be her family doctor …
– Elena Maloney, summit secretariat, The Nerve Centre
JUST COMMENTING on ‘It’s not all sex and the city for the childless female lawyer’ opinion piece, and wanted to pass on my congratulations to Susan. I found myself saying, ‘hear, hear’ a lot while reading the article. I wanted to pass on my congrats, thanks and the comment that CSLs (childless sisters in the law) within the accounting profession are feeling the same way (I guess we’d be CSAs – childless sisters in accounting)!
– Name withheld upon request
I HAVE JUST read Susan Borg’s ‘It’s not all sex and the city for the childless female lawyer’ and feel like jumping for joy!
The article says everything I have been thinking and feeling for so long; it’s a joy to see the words in print. Perhaps someone could push this in front of every MP (State and Federal) to try to make them understand that the silent majority is paying for the wish list of the vocal minority with no right of reply (or you face being called a bigot)!
However, it’s not just childless women lawyers that this affects. Every working woman and man who either have no children, or whose children are now grown and have left the nest, are also affected.
I could cry at the thought of my tax dollars being used by couples earning double incomes to pay for their childcare expenses. I do not mind my tax being used to help anyone who needs it, but it could be put to much better use than selfish high income earners bleeding the system.
Surely if you choose to have children (like I did) then you are responsible for their upkeep (as I was) and you should not expect handouts from the Government (read taxpayer).
We talk of anti-discrimination and have laws in place to ensure equality. What equality is there in this society when PWC (people with children) have right of priority for anything they want over people without children, but expect the PWC to subsidise them.
It’s time everyone took responsibility for their own actions, and if you choose to have a family, you are responsible for their upkeep – not your employer and not every other taxpayer in the country.
I too love children. I have two lovely daughters myself, but no way did I expect preferential treatment from anyone when I was bringing them up. They were my responsibility.
– Jacqui Stone
I LOVED Susan Borg’s opinion, ‘It’s not all sex and the city for the childless female lawyer.’ Finally, someone tells it like it is.
Maybe I’m not such a bad person after all for feeling annoyed at the flexibility and impact PWC have on childless people in the workplace, and it’s great to have someone articulate it! The constant feeling of pressure that your own job may be impacted to allow PWC to get all the options for flexibility in their job at the expense of others is extremely irritating. The constant threat of needing to go three days a week because they are so busy, which then impacts childless people who also have busy work and personal lives. I hope to have children one day but I really hope I don’t impact my fellow colleagues the way that I feel I am.
I have also been frustrated at how the government promotes benefits/tax cuts and the like to PWC (which I’m sure they deserve) but there are no benefits for being single or a couple without children, even though we are contributing to society. Not everyone can have or wants children but we constantly pay for it through our taxes.
Anyway, I just wanted to say I loved the article; it made me feel OK about my silent frustrations.
– M Atkinson
WHAT AN intriguing story – slightly provocative but certainly well worth raising such an issue, as I have no doubt that these misgivings echo throughout most professions and at all levels.
As a childless 33-year-old married woman (not looking to have children yet), I found myself sympathising with the CSL. I certainly get extremely frustrated when PWCs in our firm leave work early to pick up children, swagger in after 9.00am, or work from home because said child is sick and then bombard you with requests all day because they can’t access the company’s database, hard drive and so on. Add to that the endless children stories and photos you have to coo over – makes me want to gag and yes, God forbid, say something! I did once and it wasn’t worth it!
But niggling in the back of my mind was that, yes, as taxpayers we have to subsidise a variety of government assistance schemes including family tax benefits, maternity leave and so on. However, who is going to pay taxes required to keep the infrastructure of this country going when we no longer can? Yes, CSL. It will be the children of the PWC paying taxes when we are well into our retirement.
So by the time I got to the end of the article, all sympathy for CSL absolutely vanished and I was left thinking that maybe – just maybe – Ally McBeal wasn’t the overworked imaginations of a very creative writing team …
– Simone Clencie, Korn/Ferry Futurestep – Asia Pacific
