Interesting Article from Everybodies Favourite Paper
Oct 15th 2009, 9:20 am
#1
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Dubai
Posts: 13,547
Interesting Article from Everybodies Favourite Paper
Oct 15th 2009, 10:34 am
#2
ex-expat
Joined: Nov 2008
Location: in front of my computer - in sunny Sussex!
Posts: 2,162
Re: Interesting Article from Everybodies Favourite Paper
OMFG! Now that has seriously got me started!
Maternity leave in the UK is good, thank you very much. 9 months on £450 (approx) and 3 months unpaid as statutory is not bad, but still tight towards the end. Scandinavian countries get 3 years that you can split between either parent, France and Belgium get next to nothing.
Most women have to go back to work to pay the mortgage, not cos they necessarily want to.
The trouble is that in this day and age where we are taught (and teach our daughters) that they can have a career and a family, it is still simply not true - unless you hand over your children to someone else to care for them for the majority of the day. It isn't about ambition or not wanting responsibility (in the workplace), it's simply about what is possible.
Case in point: me. Fully qualified architect, good at what I do. Had kids and then my parameters for work change. I can't do the kind of working week I used to - a good job in London and 3 hours commute every day, so out of the house for 13-14h a day.
Totally aside from the fact that no nurseries will look after your kids for that long or that it'd be prohibitively expensive, well, why have kids if you don't actually see them?
So, my new parameters are: local job, preferably part-time or flexible hours. All of you who know construction may well be smiling to yourselves at this very moment, because that's about as common as an honest landlord in Dubai. Certainly the big names wouldn't even consider me - they need people who can do overtime at the drop of a hat, not who'd have to leave early cos their kid was ill.
I am no less ambitious or talented than I was 2 years ago. I am still the same person... apart from the fact I now need to consider the needs of 2 other people who, quite frankly, are far more important than any job.
Maternity leave in the UK is good, thank you very much. 9 months on £450 (approx) and 3 months unpaid as statutory is not bad, but still tight towards the end. Scandinavian countries get 3 years that you can split between either parent, France and Belgium get next to nothing.
Most women have to go back to work to pay the mortgage, not cos they necessarily want to.
The trouble is that in this day and age where we are taught (and teach our daughters) that they can have a career and a family, it is still simply not true - unless you hand over your children to someone else to care for them for the majority of the day. It isn't about ambition or not wanting responsibility (in the workplace), it's simply about what is possible.
Case in point: me. Fully qualified architect, good at what I do. Had kids and then my parameters for work change. I can't do the kind of working week I used to - a good job in London and 3 hours commute every day, so out of the house for 13-14h a day.
Totally aside from the fact that no nurseries will look after your kids for that long or that it'd be prohibitively expensive, well, why have kids if you don't actually see them?
So, my new parameters are: local job, preferably part-time or flexible hours. All of you who know construction may well be smiling to yourselves at this very moment, because that's about as common as an honest landlord in Dubai. Certainly the big names wouldn't even consider me - they need people who can do overtime at the drop of a hat, not who'd have to leave early cos their kid was ill.
I am no less ambitious or talented than I was 2 years ago. I am still the same person... apart from the fact I now need to consider the needs of 2 other people who, quite frankly, are far more important than any job.
Oct 15th 2009, 10:43 am
#3
Account Closed
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 7,028
Re: Interesting Article from Everybodies Favourite Paper
OMFG! Now that has seriously got me started!
Maternity leave in the UK is good, thank you very much. 9 months on £450 (approx) and 3 months unpaid as statutory is not bad, but still tight towards the end. Scandinavian countries get 3 years that you can split between either parent, France and Belgium get next to nothing.
Most women have to go back to work to pay the mortgage, not cos they necessarily want to.
The trouble is that in this day and age where we are taught (and teach our daughters) that they can have a career and a family, it is still simply not true - unless you hand over your children to someone else to care for them for the majority of the day. It isn't about ambition or not wanting responsibility (in the workplace), it's simply about what is possible.
Case in point: me. Fully qualified architect, good at what I do. Had kids and then my parameters for work change. I can't do the kind of working week I used to - a good job in London and 3 hours commute every day, so out of the house for 13-14h a day.
Totally aside from the fact that no nurseries will look after your kids for that long or that it'd be prohibitively expensive, well, why have kids if you don't actually see them?
So, my new parameters are: local job, preferably part-time or flexible hours. All of you who know construction may well be smiling to yourselves at this very moment, because that's about as common as an honest landlord in Dubai. Certainly the big names wouldn't even consider me - they need people who can do overtime at the drop of a hat, not who'd have to leave early cos their kid was ill.
I am no less ambitious or talented than I was 2 years ago. I am still the same person... apart from the fact I now need to consider the needs of 2 other people who, quite frankly, are far more important than any job.
Maternity leave in the UK is good, thank you very much. 9 months on £450 (approx) and 3 months unpaid as statutory is not bad, but still tight towards the end. Scandinavian countries get 3 years that you can split between either parent, France and Belgium get next to nothing.
Most women have to go back to work to pay the mortgage, not cos they necessarily want to.
The trouble is that in this day and age where we are taught (and teach our daughters) that they can have a career and a family, it is still simply not true - unless you hand over your children to someone else to care for them for the majority of the day. It isn't about ambition or not wanting responsibility (in the workplace), it's simply about what is possible.
Case in point: me. Fully qualified architect, good at what I do. Had kids and then my parameters for work change. I can't do the kind of working week I used to - a good job in London and 3 hours commute every day, so out of the house for 13-14h a day.
Totally aside from the fact that no nurseries will look after your kids for that long or that it'd be prohibitively expensive, well, why have kids if you don't actually see them?
So, my new parameters are: local job, preferably part-time or flexible hours. All of you who know construction may well be smiling to yourselves at this very moment, because that's about as common as an honest landlord in Dubai. Certainly the big names wouldn't even consider me - they need people who can do overtime at the drop of a hat, not who'd have to leave early cos their kid was ill.
I am no less ambitious or talented than I was 2 years ago. I am still the same person... apart from the fact I now need to consider the needs of 2 other people who, quite frankly, are far more important than any job.
Oct 15th 2009, 11:17 am
#4
Big Member
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,889
Re: Interesting Article from Everybodies Favourite Paper
Some cracking comments:
"The silly woman...she looks half man anyway....her life cannot be that perfect...her hair looks greasy.
- lin, uk, 15/10/2009 7:51"
"The silly woman...she looks half man anyway....her life cannot be that perfect...her hair looks greasy.
- lin, uk, 15/10/2009 7:51"
Oct 15th 2009, 2:04 pm
#5
why ayeeeee man!
Joined: Jan 2008
Location: Disco Gardens...
Posts: 11,370
