Dopey bugger I am.
That should have read "because they have to".

Antiseptic, arent you forgetting all the women in different countries that stepped up to the challenge during the World Wars. Women can do these jobs and will choose to if the need arises.

Does a garbage collector really earn more than a nurse? Nurses are very highly paid (and rightly so). They also are mainly women, and work pretty inflexible shift work. They are often the primary earner for a couple, particularly if she chooses more shift work. Given a choice - I'd pick up garbage no worries at all (its pretty cosy driving a truck compared to changing bedpans).

There are stacks of women in high paid jobs, but as has been pointed out, women will often choose to be the main care-giver for children. Mind you, I think there are still more cases than not where this role is assumed (preferred or not).

Do I believe there should be more flexibility for men in the work-place - hell yes! There should be more men more heavily involved in their children's lives. I'm a big advocate for both sides in this.

Country Gal:"Antiseptic, arent you forgetting all the women in different countries that stepped up to the challenge during the World Wars. Women can do these jobs and will choose to if the need arises. "

Are you suggesting that we should use the extreme circumstance of a wartime economy to model our modern society upon?

What a terribly gloomy way to se the world.

The point, of course is that women don't do these jobs except in extremis. They don't and won't choose them of their own volition if there is any alternative. A significant minority of men actually like doing dirty and dngerous jobs where very few women do.

There was a documentary series on ABC a little while ago called Dirty Jobs. The star of the show worked for a day in all sorts of different dirty jobs, from cleaning sewer tanks to harvesting a peculiar shellfish that lives in mud and all points between. While there were women doing some of the dirty jobs, they were very few and far between.

Yes, in some countries women do some of the dirty work, but not in the West and certainly not in the middle-class, where virtually all Australian women see themselves. It's simply beneath them.

Country gal:"There should be more men more heavily involved in their children's lives. I'm a big advocate for both sides in this."

Yes, I realise that and so are most of the men posting here. It's a shame that so many women seem so threatened by the idea. the Fatherhood Institute in the UK did a study recently, which while flawed is still a good approach to the issue. They assume that the best way to achieve equity in parenting (pre- and post-separation) is to create equity in the capacity of both parents to support the child. They are in favour of a paid maternal leave scheme for that reason, which is one of the faults in my view.

http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/FI-FiFI-Report-2010_FINAL.pdf