Women's lives vary enormously and also change as their family circumstances change.
But we shouldnt confuse the variety of women's patterns of paid and unpaid work with <choice>.
 
The fact that some women stay home to priobvide full time care, (eg for young children), while others are able to work part time (eg with responsibility for school age children or an ageing parent) and others are able to work full time and continuously (usually because they are childless) doesnt mean women have a choice! At any one time, the options available to someone with caring commitments are tightly constrained by the needs of the people s/he is caring for. Paid work is fitted around that. 
 
Hakim has argued that women can choose whether to have children. Provided contraception and abortion are available, and that her husband doesnt pressure her to have a baby, and if we discount society's need to reproduce the next generation who will pay for pensions, perhaps she has a point. But we certainly cant choose whether to have parents who need care as they age, or a partner who develops a disabling chronic illness. 
 
Jay    

From: email list for Radical Statistics on behalf of Martin Sewell
Sent: Wed 13/06/2007 8:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Women, men; Different, equal

At 18:59 13/06/2007 +0100, Jay Ginn wrote:
>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.

Women can stay at home as a full-time mother, pursue a full-time
career, or pursue anything between these two extremes.  Men, in
contrast, have no choice: they must both compete and provide.

Regards

Martin

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