CART (0)Comment: anyone who has followed my recent speeches will know that while I have welcomed Mark Latham’s friendly approach to children, early child-hood education and family issues, I have been perturbed that he has not – to my knowledge – ever talked about women apart from in their role as mothers. One of the main contentions of my book The End of Equality is that, once again – just like the 1950s? – our politicians are trying to relegate women back to being seen as mothers and nothing else instead of acknowledging and devising policies for the multitude of roles that most women want to enjoy. Yesterday saw a change. According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald (20 April, 2004 p 2.) when Latham was asked by someone at a community group his views on abortion, he said “I support a woman’s right to choice in those circumstances”. Bravo Mark!
Let’s hope we hear more from the Opposition Leader on subjects of interest and concern to women as women. (As citizens, of course we all have a lot of interests in a lot of different subjects but these are not the subject of this Newsletter).