Earlier this week, a leading headmistress claimed girls needed to choose between their careers and motherhood. The idea that women can “have it all”, she said, was “a lie”.
Vivienne Durham, head of London’s independent school Francis Holland Regent’s Park, stated in an interview with Absolutely Education magazine: “I’m sorry, I’m not a feminist. I believe there is a glass ceiling – if we tell [girls] there isn’t one, we are telling them a lie.”
Starting any sentence with the words “I’m not a feminist” is misguided at best – particularly worrying words from the leader of a girls school, responsible for instilling values, which you might reasonably assume would include the fundamental rule of feminism, that women and men are equal.
What she said next, however, in a follow-up interview with The Telegraph threw up an interesting question: “Young girls have massive options these days and some of them will make a decision that they don’t want to combine everything and that is as valid as making the decision that you do want to combine everything,” she said.
“Some of them will juggle and combine everything and that will be the future for lots of women. I certainly want women to have that choice.”
“There are different demands and people have different capacities and you need to make the decisions that are right for your family”
