Who puts the garbage out? Fathers must take an equal role in parenting before their marriages end in divorce if changes to child custody laws are going to work, Pru Goward said yesterday.
But Pru Goward is out of touch said, Mr Equal, It's been that way for a very long time.
"That men have taken up their share of the politics of family."
Who puts the garbage out?
Sorry it's not fathers who must, Pru darling! But parents, excuse me honey.
The Sex Discrimination Commissioner who needs a new job took issue with plans for automatic 50-50 shared child custody laws proposed by the Prime Minister.
Ms Goward said the plan had to be part of a major re-think of male attitudes to work and family roles.
But Mr Equal said stereotyping males into some form of normal roll is just nonsense. Mr Equal from the human race said, people have to re-think about attitudes to work and family roles. Why discriminate against males? He said.
Ms Goward said, "The [men's] movement wants 50-50 care arrangements post-divorce, without any suggestion that men will have to put in equal parenting time while the marriage is intact or that they will need to re-arrange their lives if they want to be more involved after separation," she said.
[Now Ms Goward wants to go into your home and change your family, because men have decided they're equal, which is what women decided 20 years ago when they burnt their bra's.]
Ms Goward said these issues should be considered by the parliamentary inquiry examining the 50-50 custody plan.
Mr Equal said, when you break down people into categories and labels then you lose your ability to solve a problem, in this case parenting. "How do you know how any unique individual family needs to survive?"
"No family is the same and therefore no formula is the same. People do their best and what they are best at," he said.
Ms Goward: "Shared caring has to start before the divorce," she said. "It could drive exactly the change that the women's movement wants if it's done wisely.
"But if it is just seen as parents' rights and children's interests get forgotten, it could be very deleterious."
Mr Equal: " Shared caring has to start when you are born and when you first opened your eyes." [Nurture Nature] But if it's just seen as a mother's right and fathers and children's interests get forgotten, it could be very deleterious and even fatal.
Ms Goward warned of a possible new gender war unless men shared more of the burden of child rearing, and more of the career sacrifices needed to raise a family.
Mr Equal warned Ms Goward's bias towards gender issues and stereotyping technics could lead to a gender war "Unless people start to see parenting solutions equally and holisticaly instead of breaking people down into categories and labels.
"Trying to give people in families normal rolls is not realistic because parents like people do their best with the skills they have attained up until the time a child was born."
"Parents need to put their resources and ideas together and come up with solutions in order to survive. " he said.
Ms Goward, "Equality between men and women has hit a brick wall, and only the engagement of men in the struggle for work and family balance will move equality closer," she told the Women, Management and Employment Relations Conference in Sydney.
Ms Goward called for men to start using family-friendly work entitlements, such as unpaid parental leave and more flexible hours. She urged bosses, from CEOs down, to encourage rather than penalise men who did so.
"In reality, we do not live in a society which tolerates or venerates men who do part-time work or leave work early to pick up a sick child," she said.
Ms Goward's remarks are the first significant response by a prominent woman since the proposal for custody law changes were floated and it shows how urgently we need to start being equal as parents with attitudes like that floating around.
Ms Goward: "Our culture is such that these men are more likely to be seen as uncommitted to their careers to an even greater extent than women who allow their family life to intrude into their working life," she said.
Mr Equal's, remarks are the first significant response by a prominent man since the proposal for custody law changes were floated and it shows how urgently we need to start being equal as 'people' with attitudes like that floating around.
Mr Equal: "Our culture is such that this woman who is the "Sex Discrimination Commissioner" is bias towards men. How can that be that Ms Goward not only holds this position but still has a job and can influence a large majority of people with such nonsense?"
Mr Equal warned that Ms Goward is on a "collision course."
Ms Goward warned that work and family life were on a "collision course". Many women had to work to help pay hefty family mortgages in Melbourne and Sydney, while others wanted a career; and female participation in the workforce was needed to sustain current economic growth.
Mr Equal: "Was that Goward or Howard?"
Ms Goward, "There is only one discretionary 'choice' area: the number of children we have," she said. "No wonder the number of only-child families has increased from one in five families in 1981 to one in three families in 2001."
Mr Equal: " Many people had to work to help pay hefty family mortgages in Melbourne and Sydney, Perth, WA, QLD, Tasmania and the Northern Territory while others wanted a career: and parent participation in the workforce was needed to sustain current economic growth."
"There is not only one discretionary 'choice' area by the way: And there will never be only one discretionary choice area in any family arrangements." he said.
Ms Goward, said national leadership was necessary if men were to be encouraged to share housework and childcare duties and make more career sacrifices to do so. But she complained the men best placed to play this role political leaders in Canberra did not have family-orientated lives.
Federal Government proposal to abolish the post of Race Discrimination Commissioner
I write to alert you to a Federal Government proposal to abolish the post of Race Discrimination Commissioner (together with the posts of Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights Commissioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner).
Mr Equal, said national leadership was necessary if people were to be encouraged to be equal and share housework and childcare duties and make more career sacrifices to do so. Do people wait until after they're divorced to want more of a role in parenting? send us your feedback. It's time for equality: Whitlam Dec 2 2002.
By People 25 July 03 Work and Family Reporter
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