No, this is nothing to do with the ordination, consecration or anything else that you could choose to think of regarding women and the Church. This is a much wider consideration because it is a secular concern (although, seeing some churches !!!).
With the cuts that have been announced this week (did the Tories have to behave so badly with their boorish and ignorant catcalls to the opposition, who were equally awful and disgraceful considering the fact that the problems are their legacy?) I have think that we might be about to see the role of women in the workplace do an amazing about turn.
Yesterday I was discussing the situation with someone whose organisation has announced a sixty percent cut in staffing, the majority of which will (apparently) come from the administrative departments (which are almost totally female). My informant told me that, as a manager, she had received a call that meant that the jobs of some forty women and a couple of almost retirement age men were on the line.
Another telephone conversation brought up the topic of funding and the fact that a couple of family support projects were going to close at the end of 2010. These were staffed entirely by women. I heard the same in Liverpool last year as the (less than one per cent male) project workers talked on projects not being renewed because of projected council cuts.
The problem is that as the cuts come in the jobs that are most likely to vanish are 'back office', administrative and the 'soft and fluffy' caring stuff and this, generally, means women.
Seems to me that we are looking at a return to the male as the primary wage earner. This, potentially, heads us towards a terrible situation for many families and the death-knell for maternal single-parent units. We are perhaps on the edge of a three-tier society and a reversal of the opportunities for women in terms of employment.
Some professorial worthy was wittering on about the fact that, with equal pay, a reduced job market would see the emphasis swing towards males because the advantage that used to be 'cheaper' labour when employing women has been lost.
Another consideration (but not for today): Extending the life of the workforce by raising the retirement age means that those who have jobs will remain in them for longer, thus disadvantaging the younger job seekers.
1 comment:
Vic,
I have to agree with you whole heartedly on this.
When will politicians look further then the end of their political noses to see the consequences, once or twice removed of their actions.
It seemed to me that the coalition were positively gloating over the cuts to public service, which will cause so much damage.
The only thing I can say in my own defence is that I voted Green, as the only party who seem to have sensible policies on both people and the environment.
The country is being driven to ruin by successive generations of politicians who have never done anything else, and have no conception of the real life lived by their citizens.
Only IDS and Frank Field and Caroline Lucus seem to me to have any integrity and honesty, perhaps I am being judgmental, but I find it hard to be anything else in this case.
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