I was surprised to see that I was commenting a year ago on the question of MP’s expenses It is surprising that no one saw the real storm coming
I am wondering, especially in the light of more recent developments, if sexism had anything to do with it.
My choice of title (Too hot in the kitchen) for the comment on the cases of Caroline Spelman & Wendy Alexander – is revealing
So was Gordon Brown’s reference to a Gentleman’s Club
Did we (all) think that this was perhaps a girly thing – they haven’t learned the rules yet? Or, as my comments hint, think it unfair to exclude child care but nor other kinds of personal domestic service such as cleaning & gardening
Did the men not gather round to defend them because there was no threat to them, it was a woman thing, women are not full members of the club
It would be interesting to see a cool objective analysis of how many of the early victims/casualties were female & whether the explosion of public opprobrium coincided with the turning of the guns on the men
