Upsetting Feminists

On Thursday and Friday the newspapers reported an article by Dr Catherine Hakim senior research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, calling for future social and family policy to be gender-neutral rather than geared towards helping women. Given the freedom to choose, she says, women and men divide into three lifestyle-preference groups – home-centred, work-centred and adaptives (who combine work and family) and nowhere in western Europe are there more than 25% of women who are career driven.

Dr Hakim predicts that "men will continue to dominate in the workforce and public life while women will continue to dominate in family life, even in the absence of sex discrimination, because there are some residual differences in tastes, values and lifestyle choices." She suggests women now have a real choice whereas men's working practices are limited so, if anything, future legislation should address this imbalance.

LSE press release "More sex equality law would be futile and perverse says new essay by LSE expert"