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Dear Ray, Feminists say women are 'different but equal', see EOC logo formulation in subject line, rather than 'separate but equal'. 'Different' because our lives are still much more restricted than men's by caring roles. And I have lots of stats on that, if anyone doubts it. Does anyone seriously argue that women should not have equal rights with men or that our lives are not, if we become mothers, different from men's in employment duration, occupational experience and earnings (among other less measurable things) ? Yes, women's aspirations to equal rights in law, plus divorce law reform in the 1960s, has contributed to increased divorce. It would be strange if that had not occurred. But who wants to return to the dark days when women (and men!) had to remain in loveless, even violent, marriages? And when women who were unwillingly pregnant could not obtain a safe legal abortion? LOne parents are only a problem if socially constructed as such, eg kept poor by inadequate bebefits, excluded from employment by lack of affordable childcare and stigmatised by the ignorant for their situation. Of course the Child Support Agency failed. It aimed to make (putative) fathers pay mothers directly for child support, and all the charities concerned, plus anyone who understood that men are not saints, predicted that would be unworkable. We can only say 'We warned you', as this govt belatedly admits CSA was a turkey. jay ****************************************************** Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your message will go only to the sender of this message. If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's 'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically to [log in to unmask] Disclaimer: The messages sent to this list are the views of the sender and cannot be assumed to be representative of the range of views held by subscribers to the Radical Statistics Group. To find out more about Radical Statistics and its aims and activities and read current and past issues of our newsletter you are invited to visit our web site www.radstats.org.uk. *******************************************************