As a Mum with daughters who were all breastfed, alongside an attitude of equity for women. I take a fairly keen interest in those news stories that perhaps explore womens inssues in the mainstream media. In England, it does not get more mainstream than the BBC. So the appearance of Stella Creasy, Member of Parliament for Walthamstow, London, in the House of Commons with her infant in a carrier attracted my attention. As it clearly attracted the attention of the British Press. The BBC headline ” No babies allowed in Parliament ” was a benign and patriarchal statement. Nothing hidden, nothing particularly different to several hundred years of women being told what they can and cannot do insofar as their roles relate to work, society and home. Interesting as aside from major lifechanging surgery, the female body is designed with a womb, the organ can, unless there are complications, incubate foetus’ that are delivered into the world from womens bodies to become infants and children. Now save the philosophical arguments of male ownership of a female physical process, what we know biologically, after birth, a womans body takes approximately twelve months to adjust, and psychologicaly, I would argue a lifetime.
So the bringing of her child into the chamber is interesting because, unlike the majority of workplaces, the House of Commons has a nursery, this allows mothers with infants the ability to work and breastfeed. Now interestingly the quotes for the pieces demonstrate the real issue in England, that being the state control of parenting choices, particularly insofar as it relates to mothers. The male Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab suggesting it is a decision for employers, in this case the government to decide upon mothers bringing infants into the ‘office’. Now reading further it seems that the committee leader for behaviour told his female secretary to send an email making it clear that it was unbecoming to bring a baby to work. Therefore setting a very clear example to the rest of the countries employers, with a powerbase of male managers, CEOs etc… that the answer to taking control of female staff is to get your female secretary to drop them an email telling them, motherhood is not seen or heard in England indeed it is strictly controlled by the patriarchal house.
Now having had one of my children removed from my care by the English Legal System, I can personally attest to the involvement that England has in the ‘correct’ way for mothers to behave, to live, to feed, to work. The same authority that removed my child, this week removed a child from a mother and handed the child to the parents of the man who had committed statutory rape. This meant that child will be sent to Ghana. It seems that Ghana is preferable for a child to be raised by the parents of a sex offender, than an English mother who was a victim, as have I been, to gender based violence. This mother suffered an enforced ceasarian, was detained in a mental hospital where she was raped by a staff member. Interestingly the outcome was that the state offered no prosecution of the offender and the child will be raised in Ghana.
Now in the same week a woman not detained in a hospital, in fact a woman holding a job in the House of Commons, is told how she must manage her child in England. For one moment I compared this weeks events with other countries, New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardem. A mother who not only took her infant to work, but interupted TV interviews to settle her child and delivered some of the lowest Covid death toll for any country in the World. Aside from the fact that England has failed to deliver a female prime minister that does not resemble a sexless, childless stern stereotype. So much so even Margaret Thatcher, well remembered for being a woman who deivered both inspiational leadership alongside remarkable presentions skills. However this did not allow overt reference to her also being a mother. Never the twain in England shall meet. Boris Johnson this week was photographed at Peppa Pig world in a ride on car with his son. Yet even this does not really bring any great enlightenment to family life in England. As part of an unmarried couple, there was a real opportunity to be forward thinking and demonstarte modern parenting. Unfortunately the English pressure for marriage and child rearing clearly took precedence. Given the high numbers of children removed from mums in England, the court cases, the gagging orders, the rights of the state dictate to the Prime Minister as much as they do the rape victim in a locked ward, raped, drugged and baby handed to the rapist. The list goes on ad infinitum. The Italian woman in in 2012 handcuffed in a ward to give birth. An Italian woman visting UK to work, sectioned whilst in labour and the child removed and adopted.
New Zealand would likely not value the comparison between their governance and Englands. Certainly not its treatment of women. For the stark reality is that there was no outrage in the Press over this event with Stella Creasy. So ingrained in the system, even with Boris Johnson who has spoken up for womens rights many times, is inequality, patriarchal reponses to every issue. It bearly raised the blink of an eye in the press. The house that defines and debate laws in England, literally reprimanded a mother in the same week that no national newspaper deemed the handing over of a baby to a rapist by a English local authority as of any importance. It seems that where being a woman in England is concerned, no matter whether you are the Prime Minister or not, the patriarchy rules. I returned to work when my daughter was twelve weeks old, I breastfed her and spent sixty percent of my pay on childcare. In 2021 free childcare is now more widely available, maternity pay is greatly improved, but it is for men and women, because te country cannot or rather will not accept that child bearing is a gender issue that ONLY women expereince. Boris Johnson being photographed with his son just like millions of mums and Dads in England,Stella Creasy taking a stand with her baby in Westminister. I am returning to study and finding my voice. Like gender based violence and attacks on the most vulnerable members of society, if they are ignored or hidden, nothing will change. But until the law identifies female equity rather than placating a system by giving men the same rights, when they do not experience the physcial process, it all feels a little futile.