From MARGARET LEVY
As an occasional reader of New Scientist, I found your Comment of 5
March interesting and positive except for one sentence, but what a sentence!
So universities have ‘a ready supply of students who could run creches’
and that is supposed to be a forward-looking, innovative way of attracting
and keeping women members of staff (scientists or not).
Good quality childcare is essential if parents (not just women) are
to be able to concentrate on work without wondering how their offspring
might be faring. It requires committed, well-trained staff, suitable, well-equipped
premises and the kind of continuity that certainly does not come from a
succession of students possibly thinking about the next essay or last night’s
sessionin the pub.
Since good childcare is expensive, we have to take seriously the view
that caring for children is not an individual responsibility but a collective
one, that parents have a right to work, and that we will all benefit from
paying the price in taxes to fund good social childcare through local authorities.
Until that day comes, universities or other employers who decide to
provide childcare for their employees must do so on a properly organised
basis and not in the ad hoc way that your article suggests.
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Margaret Levy Newcastle upon Tyne
