THE TELEGRAPH: Elisabeth Badinter, a leading French feminist, has warned the green movement is threatening decades of improvements in gender equality by forcing women to give up their jobs and become earth mothers.
Mrs Badinter claims a "holy reactionary alliance" of green politicians, breast-feeding militants, "back to nature" feminists and child psychologists is turning Frenchwomen into slaves to green "fads" like re-usable nappies and organic food.
In her new book, Conflit, la Femme et la Mere (Conflict, the Woman and the Mother), Mrs Badinter contends that this politically correct cabal is burdening mothers with intolerable guilt unless they stay at home and breast-feed for as long as possible.
Their perfect French mother, she writes, "breastfeeds for six months and doesn't put her baby in a crèche or not too early, because baby needs to be with mum and not in a nest of germs; she is wary of all things artificial and is ecologically-minded. The jar of baby food has become a sign of selfishness; we're back to the purée mashed by mum."
Women in childbirth are even made to feel that epidurals are wrong, she goes on, adding: "We don't need to bow down to nature."
Those who choose to stay at work or to not have children are ostracised.
"It's as if we were all female chimpanzees," says Mrs Badinter, 65, who is widely admired in France for her outspoken views. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, February 11, 2010
leJDD.fr: "J'accuse un certain féminisme réactionnaire" : Elisabeth Badinter dénonce, dans un livre à paraître cette semaine, la tyrannie de la maternité et les nouvelles contraintes qui pèsent sur les femmes d'aujourd'hui. >>> Marie-Christine Tabet | Dimanche 07 Février 2010
