Hewitt: At home mothers ‘undervalued’ by Labour
Mothers who choose to stay at home and bring up children rather than going out to work have been ‘undervalued’ by the government, according to a Cabinet minister.
Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt said that Labour’s policy regarding mothers had been a mistake and the party had mistakenly given the impression that it was better if mothers worked.
In an interview with The Telegraph newspaper, she pointed out that changes to the tax credit system gave more money to mothers who stayed at home, but admitted that the government had failed to persuade the public to value women who stayed at home.
“We have got to move to a position where, as a society and as a government, we recognise and we value the unpaid work that people do within their families,” Ms Hewitt, also the minister for women, added.
She partly blamed the Women’s Equality Unit report, which said that mothers who stayed at home did not “benefit the nation” and admitted that she now wished she had worked part-time when she was a young mother.
Chancellor Gordon Brown’s forthcoming pre-Budget report is expected to offer further tax breaks to families.
Meanwhile, a survey of 2,000 women for Mother & Baby magazine found that 92 per cent of working mothers felt guilty about working and were too tired for sex, while two thirds admitted that they would rather be full-time mothers.
A spokesman for the magazine said: “For many mothers, working is not worth their while financially and many ask whether it is worth missing out on their children growing up.”
