by Maria C Collins

Created on: January 19, 2010

Some women choose to work, most women have to work. Those lucky few who choose to work have husbands who earn a wage large enough to keep a family in these expensive times which means they have the luxury to be able to choose whether to work outside the home or not. Most women do not have that luxury.

 In Britain, if a couple want to own a home, rather than renting, even the most modest house is so expensive that, it takes two wages to service a mortgage and pay the bills. There is little social housing to rent in most areas and private rented accommodation is scarce and expensive. Most women work because they must.

 The British media and politicians, when it suits their purposes to do so, talk about women going out to work for “pin money”. They blame the ills of society, juvenile delinquency, teenage alienation, and everything from childhood obesity to autism on the fact that mothers go out to work. They portray working mothers as selfish, self-centred and vain women who crave foreign holidays, flashy cars and designer clothes. A few women do go out to work for these things, but the vast majority of women go out to work to pay for food and utility bills. When you realize that electricity and gas prices have doubled in the last few years, water prices have gone up and food prices have risen alarmingly, it is no small wonder that women must work. The average man’s wage just cannot cover all the expenses of even a modest household.

 Most working mothers are plain tired, they juggle home, family, husband, and job, trying to give their best to each. Working mothers worry about whether they are doing their best for their children. They suffer stress and illness and still keep going because they must.

 A recent survey by Leeds University on behalf of the Food Standards Agency enquired into children’s school lunch boxes. It complained that less than 1% of lunchboxes surveyed contained any salad or vegetables. Most children hate salad and many children dislike vegetables intensely. It is all very well for the government to insist that school lunch boxes must contain salad and vegetables. One can imagine that busy working mums need nothing less than government interfering in children’s school lunchboxes, insisting that they put things in them that children will not eat. It will cause arguments in busy households in the mornings and make working mums feel guilty for providing packed lunches that they know their children will eat. Government seems intent on making working women’s lives even harder than they already are. Perhaps the government would be better employed tackling those manufacturers who have made vast profits from providing foods aimed at children’s lunchboxes that contain high levels of fat, salt and sugar.

 Most working women are not the high powered executives, models or pop stars depicted on television programmes. They are cleaners, bar maids, shop assistants, clerks, they earn low wages but their earnings are necessary not to buy luxuries but to buy necessities. Most women do not have the luxury of being able to choose whether to work or stay at home and rear their children. They work because they must and they do the best they can and yet they are castigated at every turn. They should be congratulated for their juggling skills and their fortitude not made to feel guilty for doing what they must.

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