Parental Challenge


Fiona Woolf's column (see [2007] Gazette, 13 April, 12) reminds us that 60% of new entrants to the profession are female. But the figures are not so good for City equity partners.



As a mother of five who has worked full-time since I was admitted in 1985, I have always been interested in these matters. Next year's legislative plan to give men six months' additional paternity leave, which could follow a mother's sixth months' maternity leave, may help couples make sexually neutral decisions about childcare and ensure men play a proper and fair role at home. Firms can help by equalising any leave rights between men and women to a greater extent than now. Women have an important role to play themselves in ensuring men are given the chance to stay home if they wish, or are very involved with their children.



Childcare is a parents' issue and not a women's issue. Due diligence to weed out sexist men before marriage, as with corporate acquisitions, pays off.



Susan Singleton, Singletons, Pinner, Middlesex