Neil French, worldwide creative director of WPP Group PLC, the world's second-largest marketing company, has quit his job following the furor caused by the controversial comments he made in response to a question from the audience at a Toronto event. «The woman asked why there are so few women creative directors. I said because you can't commit yourself to the job. And everyone who doesn't commit themselves fully to the job is crap at it.» Mr. French said yesterday in an interview. «You can't be a great creative director and have a baby and keep spending time off every time your kids are ill. You can't do the job. Somebody has to do it and the guy has to do it the same way that I've had to spend months and months flying around the world and not seeing my kid. You think that's not a sacrifice? Of course it's a sacrifice. I hate it. But that's the job and that's what I do in order to keep my family fed.» [http://tinyurl.com/e4mk5]
Reactions to this can be filed under two categories. The first one, quietly shared by most men and most traditional/resigned women is that Mr. French has a point because often the raising of family and keeping a household running befalls women today in society for the most part. That's wrong, but that's the way it is. The second one, found among «feminists» and other more modern/politically correct minds, is that French’s comment is simply the last gasp of a dinosaur.
It is undeniably true that the biggest share — if not the totality — of housework is placed under women’s responsibility, whether or not they accept it, and whether or not they also hold a job outside the house. The scope of their workload is multigenerational: they have to take care not only of the house, the husband, the children, the pets and themselves, but also of any sick and/or old parents and sometimes siblings. It will take many, many, many, many more generations before the unfairness of such burden reaches the necessary critical mass to induce any deep change in society.
So while waiting for the time when all male and female adults are truly autonomous and effectively responsible for their own livelihood and welfare, I would like to submit a third, middle-way solution. I would like to suggest that we change society expectations and organisation and that gender should no longer be a factor in preparing the younger generations to become productive adults. If every single citizen, on reaching an arbitrarily set age (let’s say 18 years old), is guaranteed a non taxable minimum income that he/she is free to supplement by doing some other remunerated job, the burden of having to earn a living would be eliminated. Children would be taught to cook, to clean, to change a faucet, etc. without any genderization of such tasks, to eliminate the sorry spectacle of men starving when their wives are away or women in distress because they can’t change a light bulb. In fact, nobody would be forced to get married at all, at least not in order to stay physically alive. Anyone, man or woman, who wants to stay home to take care of the children or a sick parent, would be free to do so. Nobody would be forced to choose between their job and their family; or at least they would no longer have the excuse of their demanding job to escape from their family.
Of course, my solution is far from perfect. But so is the present situation.
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