Australia could have been very different if women had been able to retain the jobs they had during WW2 if they wanted to keep them and extend of course into other fields. What is also forgotten is that thousands of women marched to Sydney Town Hall during WW2 demanding active operational jobs in the military, but they were refused, not by 'men' but by the controlling dinosaurs in charge of the military and in politics.

That was also the typical conservative response and top priority post-war of politicians and employers, to reel things back to maintain the old order and to slot in as many de-mobbed soldiers as possible - which to their way of thinking was heaps better than providing any real counselling or re-training.

There is plenty of evidence from government reports that couples are delaying fertility not because they want to but because they cannot afford to provide adequate housing, pay for schooling and so on. Of course expectations contribute to the cost of housing, however it is wrong to say that double income families are the main or sole cause of booming housing prices when there is plenty of evidence that it is demand that is doing it and that comes from the continually increased record numbers of immigrants. Booming population growth from immigration equals booming housing prices. The same high annual influxes of immigrants are driving taxes higher to provide more government services and needed infrastructure.

it should be remembered when considering cost
that the alternative to feminism,
where patriarchy was headed, is extinction.
if feminism is too costly so then so is life.

Desmond,

From your shocking spelling and archaic attitudes:

"You should individually send apoligies to every female that decides it's best to stay home and run a normal household"

I would guess that smart independent women frighten you.

I understand the need for time away from work during the formative years, however, while I respect the right of women never to seek outside employment and remain cloistered in the household (as much as I have the right to fill my hat with fruit and don a pink tutu), I don't hold their decision in much regard.

It is my personal opinion, and I am not about to apologise to anyone.

Shadow Minister, "however, while I respect the right of women never to seek outside employment and remain cloistered in the household (as much as I have the right to fill my hat with fruit and don a pink tutu), I don't hold their decision in much regard."

While some might be slack in your view, the substantial majority are the glue that holds society together, working actively in their extended families and in the community. It is no surprise that so many of the voluntary bodies, including charities are reduced to hiring labour or folding because many of the women who were previously available as volunteers are now at work.

You underrate the value of the extended family (and the unpaid labour of love of the women concerned) to society because you don't understand it and probably you are pandering to the outspoken feminists. How did you think that most child minding was provided and without the need for expensive State financial support, regulation and quality control (QA of private providers, now that IS a joke)?