Martha Gill identifies that women are intelligent enough to learn lessons from the negative experience of (so-called) high-achieving women and avoid following a similar path (“There’s good reason why strong female role models deter other women from aiming for the top”, Comment). She refers to the patriarchal system within which such “successful” women are operating. That surely is the key issue. No less than men, women want to succeed in life. But for many – even most – the definition of what constitutes success is not the same as that proffered within the patriarchal system.
The women’s liberation movement has striven for women to gain access into the male game and identified as successful those women who rise to the top playing by those rules. That was understandable as a beginning, given that a critical first step for women was financial independence. But 50 years on, that is no longer enough for many women. Success defined in narrow patriarchal (usually financial) terms is not something they necessarily consider worth striving for. The game needs to change and so become worth playing. That is today’s challenge for the women’s liberation movement.
Johanna Nixon
Harrow, London
Racism is black and white
Tomiwa Owolade claims that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from “racism” (“Racism in Britain is not a black and white issue. It’s far more complicated”, Comment). They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.
It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice. But they are not all their lives subject to racism. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus. In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.
Diane Abbott
House of Commons, London SW1
Volunteer? Not this king
In response to Miranda Bryant (“Coronation’s Big Help Out could be ‘damp squib’ as volunteering wanes”, News), I would suggest another reason for the lack of interest in the project. For people struggling to make ends meet, to have one of the richest and most pampered men in the world request that we spend a precious day doing voluntary work feels less like a community love-in and more a return to serfdom.
Such work, for example in food banks, charity shops, environmental and conservation projects and medical research, attempts to fill gaps left by lack of government investment. Often, the work serves to repair damage caused by policies that allow companies to charge astronomical amounts for their inadequate “services”.
If the king wishes to do something meaningful for the communities within his realm, he could come clean about his wealth and the sources thereof; pay restitution to communities that have suffered for the acquisition of such riches; stop adding to that wealth by taking money from the public purse; and demand his government delivers the necessary policies and investment so that no one is living in poverty, homeless, hungry and despised. Perhaps then we would all feel more engaged and have more time and energy to volunteer in providing life-enhancing, rather than life-saving activities.
Sue Dean
Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear
An empty invitation?
Lucinda Russell, trainer of Grand National winner Corach Rambler, urged activists to learn about how well horses are looked after in Britain (“Fox steps forward to win the chase after animal rights protesters take direct action”, Sport). She went on: “I just say to them, come and see how the horses are kept.” I wonder if the invitation extends to visiting the stable vacated by Hill Sixteen, killed after falling at the Grand National’s first fence?
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Home education works
I agree with Sonia Sodha that the government should ban smacking (“Parents can raise their children as they wish, but smacking them must be taboo”, Comment), but was disappointed to read her views on home education. She claims there are “clear safeguarding risks” to children being educated this way, despite there being no evidence to suggest home education is riskier. We know schools are the sites of many rights violations, including bullying, sexual harassment, racist exclusion policies, lack of dignity around basic human needs such as using the toilet, and outdated approaches to neurodiversity, as well as being a key source of stress and mental health problems.
Home-educating parents make big sacrifices to provide our children with a personalised education which allows them to thrive. Our children are visible and enthusiastic members of their local communities, with regular opportunities for socialising and group-based learning as well as ample time to follow their own interests. When nearly a quarter of children leave primary school unable to read properly, maybe it’s time to ask why so many parents are choosing a different path for their children.
Eloise Rickman
London SW16
Asbestos, the silent killer
As a supporter of the Merseyside Asbestos Victim Support Group, I’m delighted to see a focus on exposure to asbestos in “dilapidated schools and hospitals” (“Asbestos blamed for deaths of 150 education and health workers”, News). But it is a far wider problem about which almost no one wants to talk – because asbestos is a silent killer in almost every corner of our society.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, asbestos exposure kills around 5,000 workers each year in Britain. These deaths, at such levels for decades and still not set to decline, are the result of criminal failings by industry and government. Just one exemplar of how killing workers remains legitimate, yet relatively invisible.
Steve Tombs
Birkenhead, Merseyside
Gardens of delight
The head gardener at Hidcote, in Gloucestershire, is quoted as saying that it was the only garden of owner Lawrence Johnston (“Walking in beauty”, Magazine). In fact, Hidcote became his summer garden from the mid-1920s, when he repaired for winters to his garden at Serre de la Madone, near Menton, eventually living there permanently until his death in 1958. It is arguable that Hidcote would not be the great garden it is without the synergy that existed between the two. It is not possible to understand Johnston, his relationship with his mother and his desire to escape the strict codes of early 20th-century England without considering his French bolt-hole.
Allan Howard
Kings Bromley, Staffordshire