Stay-at-home motherhood being undermined, says senior Tory MP

Mar 20, 2023 by

by Kiran Stacey and Alexandra Topping, Independent:

Exclusive: George Eustice criticises push to get parents back to work, saying women’s ‘natural nurturing role’ should be valued.

A senior Conservative MP has said stay-at-home motherhood is being undermined by the government’s push to get parents back into work, saying women’s “natural nurturing role” should be valued.

George Eustice, the former environment secretary, said he believed the chancellor Jeremy Hunt had focused too much on encouraging mothers of young children into employment and not enough on incentivising them to stay at home.

But his comments that men and women were “biologically wired” differently were described as “outrageous” by critics, who said they were unscientific and based on outdated gender stereotypes.

Eustice, 51, is one of a number of Tory backbenchers who are now pushing Hunt to cut taxes for families at the next fiscal statement, likely to come in the autumn. But his comments have been criticised by opponents as out of date and insulting to modern families.

“‘Stay-at-home mother’ is now almost used as a derogatory term,” Eustice said. “We should respect the choice that women make.”

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