Sue Mcpherson S Response to Sister Thesis Sells Us Short

Sue McPherson’s short response to ‘Sister’ Thesis Sells Us Short by Jennifer Wells (Toronto Star) commenting on the article Working Girls by Alison Wolf (Prospect magazine, UK). April 2006.

Submitted to Toronto Star Apr 13, 2006 – no response

In ‘Sister’ Thesis Sells Us Short (Toronto Star, 8 April 2006), Jennifer Wells comments on Professor Alison Wolf’s article Working Girls (Prospect magazine. UK. April 2006). Wells questions Wolf’s view of female altruism as being in decline, Wolf explaining that women of earlier eras saw their lives in the service of others as vocations. The thought that they might have been second-class citizens may not have even entered their minds. Working women’s concerns in today’s world often ends at the immediate family, as Wells herself seems to have noticed, those outside that sphere not being within their realm of responsibility as working women – independent, with families. Wolf is right; female altruism has changed. In a society that claims to value individualism, and in which religious values are in decline, what seems to matter most is no longer one’s neighbours or even one’s country, or doing the right thing, but putting immediate family first.

Wells has yet to come to see how the idea of work has affected our lives, as women, in recent decades. Work – especially paid work – is a major source of a person’s identity. It always was, for men, and feminism has made it so for women. Wells is critical of Wolf, seeing work not as self-actualisation but as “busyness,” a slight on the very real power that having a career has on a person’s ability to speak and be heard, to have one’s views validated. She tells us that women want to give back in some way, when they are older. But after years of proving themselves on the job, is volunteering really what working women of today will want for their later years? Even on that front there is competition. And ageism is another factor. Sometimes when individuals appear to have withdrawn it is in part due to being pushed.

For women who have chosen to pursue a career, and who find recognition and fulfilment through doing so, there surely will be benefits for themselves and their families, whether chosen or blood-related. But I’m not sure that society on the whole will benefit. It may be that some women have chosen work and family, and will benefit, but at what cost to society, never mind the sisterhood. In the long term, if there are greater benefits for some women and men, more than likely there will be greater losses for others.

Sue McPherson England

Working Girls By Alison Wolf Prospect magazine Issue 121 April 2006 http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7398