Madam, - Mary Robinson makes a very valid point in noting that highly qualified women who leave work to marry and become full-time mothers are robbing the economy of a vital source of energy.
While many women find childcare and homemaking satisfying and enjoyable it cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as mentally stimulating so, when (if ever) those women return to the workforce it is unlikely that they will be able to command positions at the same level as they previously enjoyed.
Men will therefore continue to advance and to occupy positions of power in all spheres of life - a prospect that does not bode well for those children who are presently being nurtured in a world which is already hurtling towards destruction. - Yours, etc,
CARMEL COURTNEY,
Sandyford Road,
Dublin 16.
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Madam, - Mary Robinson's claim that the decision of educated women to become full-time wives and mothers represents a cop-out is truly bewildering, in view of her address to Brown University in 1991 when she quoted Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, James Baldwin, Yeats and Mary Woolstonecraft when arguing that "perpetuating the low status accorded to women in the home was perpetuating their oppression".
Commenting on the reception given to this argument of hers, she said: "I was taken aback at how well it was received. We feminists need to value the concerns and pressures of women with children at home in an everyday context. It is time to pose these questions." - Yours, etc,
ANNE CAHILL,
Laurel Park,
Clondalkin,
Dublin.
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Madam, - As a mother and wife who"copped out" I was outraged by the patronising manner in which our former president dismissed out of hand the contribution made by countless stay-at-home mothers to the enrichment of family life.
Future generations will reap a bitter harvest. - Yours, etc,
LAL GARLAND,
Butterfield Drive,
Dublin 14.
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Madam, - With regard to Mary Robinson's remarks about women who stay at home, might I suggest that the real cop-out is from men who volunteer none of their career to childminding?
If men joined women in demanding that society recognise their role in childrearing, who would be left to oppose them? - Yours, etc,
CAROLINE GIBNEY,
Smithfield Village,
Dublin 7.