Personally, I didn't take that post to refer to women specifically in education, rather all who do useless degrees just to go to Uni.
Maybe I understood it wrong, but a good point how intended messages can be skewed over the internet.
Also how gender topics can get heated very quickly!
Personally I think the info is good, but poorly forced in an absolute mannor. The youth need to know what there options are and what are the time limits on aquiring this options. Unfortunately for women, the ideal baby making age comes very quickly for the generations who are taking longer to 'mature' mentally.
I just wish that women don't have to choose either of the two. We should imagine a system that makes this possible
It is an interesting point. In the 19th century the world was composed solely of 'children' and 'adults', the concept of 'teenagers' didn't exist.
You were married off at the age of 17, unless you were fortunate enough to go into higher education first. Its obviously a completely different era, but the point was that people didn't transition through long adolescence followed by a decade of nest building before settling down and having their families.
I think this is the whole point behind the article. There is a generation of starry-eyed youth who have a strong sense of entitlement. They don't realize that you can't have everything and somethings you want will dissapear permenently much faster than others. Not being able to 'have your cake and eat it too' is a true realization that many have to accept by growing up.
When comparing with old times, I think it's important to mention that there was no birth control. My grandmother told me that women just kept having children from biologically possible until biologically possible, which means having a 6th-7th-8th child at even 48 was not an impossibility or very unusual.
I think all is well until nobody tries to force some childbearing rules onto women. Currently - at least in developed countries - they have a choice and apart from the internet critisism or woman-shaming (which is very often disturbingly done by other women) it will stay that way. People can write articles about how others should live their lives... but luckily, the law is not likely change.
Another reasons to have kids younger is you're less needed at work. Now, this might seem offensive, but think about it. The closer you are to the bottom of the ladder, the more likely your tasks can afford to wait a day or two. Which is a good thing right. Because when you can't, and you get one of those nasty childhood diseases? You will end up working from your couch, puke bucket at your feet. Not pretty.
Surely you are less needed the longer you are at a place? The grunts do the work, managers just sit around getting in the way!
yes, but then again, the more senior you are, the more allowances you get. So unless there's really a crisis, I can easily take a day off, leave early, work from home etc if needed. Sure, I have typed on Blackberry with one hand while changing diapers with the other, but still, the flexibility is useful. People at the bottom often don't enjoy similar privileges.
Depends on the job though. I you are a senior team manager, you just can't work part-time and you have to be available more or less all the time.
I think this is a vey sensitive matter..
When I got married, at the age of 29 I had some friends that said that "I shouldn't be like those women that get married and start popping babies". And I was appalled. Also I had friends that because of my age urge me to start trying as soon as possible. And I was appalled. Poor friends, there was no winning!
Bu the problem with this issue and this discussion is that we are talking about one of the most intimate and sensitive subjects for women, even man.. It's our bodies, its the potentials and limitations that our bodies have. Its our careers and possibilities to be independent and stand on our own. Its the other person with whom we will be forever connected (no divorce dude, as long as the kid is alive you are connected, even if you are divorce in separate parts of the planet and don't speak to each other.. there's a connection there..).
So you see, with all those moving parts its very very difficult, for me, to have a stand.
You should care about your career and put off starting a family until you feel you are prepared.
You should start trying to have kids and put off having a career until you feel you can step in to that phase of your life.
The shitty thing is: for some women there will be no need to make a choice: they will succeed in the work place and find a man with whom they want to have kids in time to have them as much as they both decide. For others, there will be a choice: "should I start field work and hop from country to country and put off having kids, or should I have kids now and hope my career is waiting for me some years dow the road".
When life gives you a difficult choice like this, you might have regrets. Lot's of people do. You probably won't be the exception. You can live your life preventing future regrets or you can do whatever you want now and hope there will be as few regrets as possible.. And having stuff to regret doesn't necessarily mean you will regret them
But this needs to be discussed.. Just remember, sometimes it will be a heated discussion.
...one thing a woman never has a second chance at after having a child is not being a mother...
It is far easier to become pregnant at 18 (I know you don't think your daughter would let that happen) - but it is also far easier to complete any type of education w/o a child than with one. And in reference to a previous post about universities providing childcare provision...it is so much more than childcare.
I am waiting for Mary Beard or Melissa Benn to post their response to this fine piece of work by Kirstie A. soon.
Neopaternalism anyone?
Nicola Horlick after 5, and before 6, 7, 8, 9....and how many billions of £££ earned in investment funds - guess she fits that "have your cake and eat it too" category.
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A worthless degree is exactly that regardless of the gender of the student. Even if Kirstie Allsopp is showing low intelligence you can also argue that so are the people who only see it the other way. It has to be about balance.
If the debate can only be had between people of high intelligence then we better all leave now and leave it to the experts.
Is that her mother or a nanny in the background? Women can combine a career and a family, but not all of them do it very well. If you are the type of woman that has a child on the monday and is back in the office on the wednesday (there was somebody like this I recall) leaving the kids all day with a nanny then it begs the question why bother?
It's interesting that I have never in my life heard anybody asking my male colleagues (who mostly went back to work the day after their child was born and spend long days away from their children) why they even bothered to have kids in the first place.
Because they know it is because the woman made him
That could equally be said for women too.
Sorry, what could be equally said? That nobody asks "If you are the type of woman that has a child on the monday and is back in the office on the wednesday (there was somebody like this I recall) leaving the kids all day with a nanny then it begs the question why bother?!"
Indeed- I stayed at home with the kids for 8 years, due to circumstances (not being sufficiently fluent in English and OH working really long crazy hours. He btw hardly saw the children for the first five years and nobody batted an eyelid !!! And what is wrong with having a nanny to ensure the children always have a caring person here to ensure they are well looked after? If you have a senior job, with the slary to match, it is much better than some silly 18 year old Au Pair, very long days at a crêche, and total panic if the train is delayed or a last minute meeting springs up, etc.
It's not an option for many, but that does no make it wrong imho.