'Bitches in britches'!

What fun! Two great catfights have broken out in the sisterhood.

 

One is over the public assertion by a woman that female doctors are a source of ‘unintended consequences in the NHS’. A junior Health Minister, Anne Soubry, said, quite reasonably, that there should be more GPs to take account of the fact that female doctors take timeout and reduce their hours to take care of their families.

 

Sep forward Dr Sharon Bennett. Whizzing off a letter to the Telegraph, she said that she was ‘shocked’ by Ms Soubry’s sexism and that she was promoting ‘outdated sexist attitudes’.

 

Dr Bennett is married to Andrew ‘Plebgate’ Mitchell MP.

 

Dr Hannah Mitchell joined the fray, saying that it was a display of sexism.

 

Dr Mitchell is Andrew Mitchell’s daughter.

 

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t counter the argument that, with 70% of medical students being female, it followed logically that more GPs would be needed to take account of the female’s shorter working life.

 

But this is not unique to medicine. We frequently read feminist hacks going on about the ’glass ceiling’, the low proportion of woman as directors of FTSE 100 companies, about women’s earnings being lower than men’s, as if there was a widespread male-chauvinist conspiracy to keep women down. But it’s just not true, and it’s absurd to suggest that employers twin-track their staff remuneration to discriminate against women; jobs are usually advertised with a salary range that is part of the deal.

 

The main reason why women’s lifetime earnings are lower is that they have a shorter working life; they withdraw from work to create a family; they retire earlier; they often take part-time employment so that they can juggle the demands of work and home. They are wise enough o understand that you can’t ‘have it all’, whatever the female columnists might tell them.

 

For similar reasons, they tend to be absent from the workplace between the ages of 30 and 40, which is the make-or-break part of a career.

 

The other ruckus is over the feminist magazine ‘Spare Rib’.

 

The founder, Rosie Boycott who is now travel editor of the Oldie magazine after a stellar career in journalism, is opposed to the new publication taking the name. M’ learned friends are hovering.

 

The feisty Julie Burchill helpfully suggests that it should be called ‘Bitches in Britches’.

 

 

 

What fun! Two great catfights have broken out in the sisterhood.

 

One is over the public assertion by a woman that female doctors are a source of ‘unintended consequences in the NHS’. A junior Health Minister, Anne Soubry, said, quite reasonably, that there should be more GPs to take account of the fact that female doctors take timeout and reduce their hours to take care of their families.

 

Sep forward Dr Sharon Bennett. Whizzing off a letter to the Telegraph, she said that she was ‘shocked’ by Ms Soubry’s sexism and that she was promoting ‘outdated sexist attitudes’.

 

Dr Bennett is married to Andrew ‘Plebgate’ Mitchell MP.

 

Dr Hannah Mitchell joined the fray, saying that it was a display of sexism.

 

Dr Mitchell is Andrew Mitchell’s daughter.

 

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t counter the argument that, with 70% of medical students being female, it followed logically that more GPs would be needed to take account of the female’s shorter working life.

 

But this is not unique to medicine. We frequently read feminist hacks going on about the ’glass ceiling’, the low proportion of woman as directors of FTSE 100 companies, about women’s earnings being lower than men’s, as if there was a widespread male-chauvinist conspiracy to keep women down. But it’s just not true, and it’s absurd to suggest that employers twin-track their staff remuneration to discriminate against women; jobs are usually advertised with a salary range that is part of the deal.

 

The main reason why women’s lifetime earnings are lower is that they have a shorter working life; they withdraw from work to create a family; they retire earlier; they often take part-time employment so that they can juggle the demands of work and home. They are wise enough o understand that you can’t ‘have it all’, whatever the female columnists might tell them.

 

For similar reasons, they tend to be absent from the workplace between the ages of 30 and 40, which is the make-or-break part of a career.

 

The other ruckus is over the feminist magazine ‘Spare Rib’.

 

The founder, Rosie Boycott who is now travel editor of the Oldie magazine after a stellar career in journalism, is opposed to the new publication taking the name. M’ learned friends are hovering.

 

The feisty Julie Burchill helpfully suggests that it should be called ‘Bitches in Britches’.