According to a survey in the Irish Times, fully 43pc of women feel that society values women who are in paid employment over women who work in the home.

A piece in today’s Irish Times nicely captures that sense of being undervalued.

Written by Aine O’Sullivan, it sums up the feeling of being judged for not being in the workplace:

“The phrases that are bandied about are sometimes hard to swallow.

“’When are you going back to work?’

“’Still a lady of leisure then?’, and ‘Isn’t it fine for you? I wish I had that luxury!’

“I don’t feel valued by society as a mother who doesn’t work outside the home.

“I’ve often felt, rightly or wrongly, that my choice is viewed as anti-feminist or anti-woman.”

Women like O’Sullivan have their own reasons for deciding to take care of their own children:

“Nobody can give my children better care than I. Nobody else is going to breastfeed my children or care more about what they eat than I. Nobody can converse with them as I can.

“I love being the one that reads their moods, senses their needs, balances their pull for independence with their need for security.

“Sometimes people ask about the independence, socialisation and education of children who are cared for solely by their mother. But my 3½-year-old son is a social, quietly confident, energetic and able child.”

The point isn’t whether the best place for a child is in the home or in childcare. The point is that parents, not society, not media pundits, and not the State, should make that decision.

Currently, the Government’s tax individualisation policy discriminates against one income married couples, because it only allows them one set of tax credits. This can mean that such families pay up to €6,000 per annum more than double income families on the same income.

In addition, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Education Minister Ruairi Quinn are eyeing Child Benefit and want to use the some of the €2 billion allocated towards it annually to pay for universal childcare, further penalising mothers who choose to care for their children at home.

Once upon a time, the issue of women in the workplace was an issue of choice. Now it seems that women are no longer to be allowed to choose to work outside the home. Policy is increasingly forcing them to do so.