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Working, Caring and Life Balance

Angela Watkinson (Upminster) (Con): I have some personal experience of the 1950s when I was in a co-educational grammar school, and I can recall male teachers saying to girl students that it did not really matter if they did not understand something because they were only going to get married and have children anyway. I recall that the only career advice that the girls were ever given was when they were all herded into the hall and the headmistress said that there were only two respectable occupations for girls: nursing and teaching. She said, "Nurses over there, teachers over there." That was the sum total of career advice. When I first went to work in the late 1950s in a bank—before the Equal Pay Act 1963—women were considered to be temporary employees. Even if they never married, had that delightful title "spinster" and stayed in that job all their working lives, they were still only temporary employees and were on a lower pay scale. If anyone closely examined the 1950s, I do not think that they would want to go back to that time.

Sandra Gidley : I absolutely agree, and it is clear, after talking to women who lived through that time, that they almost envy what women have these days. However, we can do better to provide a work-life balance.

I am not sure whether it would be in order to talk about this, but one other aspect of the report caught my eye: some work by the Kinsey Institute. Many hon. Members will know what it studies. It came up with a quite alarming fact that the average married woman with young children "makes love"—I think those were the words—to her husband less frequently these days than 30 years ago. We must aim at a system in which women and men can choose the pattern of working and child care that does not tire them out, so that we can improve on the 1950s.

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