The Labour Party Conference
With Andrew Marr and the plastic babies
Why did we go?
We went to the conference to listen, question and speak out for the choice for mothers who would like to spend more time with their babies and young children. This voice seems increasingly missing in the Early Years narrative. We attended every meeting on early years, childcare, care and education that we could physically fit into our timetable.
What’s wrong with the current narrative?
One of the many event we attended
The Early Years Care narrative is dominated by the economic perspective which sees child rearing as an obstacle to a woman’s ability to contribute to a growing economy and fill a shortage in the labour market. It sees the problems caused by graduate women in particular leaving the labour market for a time increasing the gender pay gap and the problems of lower pensions later on in life making women poorer than men. It is difficult to argue with this. It is a fact.
From this perspective, the work of caring is a burden, a problem that needs to be fixed and the only solution is to outsource the care, in the first instance to the father so that there is more equality, and secondly to a third party.
It also sees families as individuals and not a unit, women and men are in competition with each other and its aim is equality of roles and of pay.
The questions and narrative we raised
But what if the work of raising children was the most important job in the world? The solution would not be to remove this job from mothers and give it to someone else. It would be to value the work itself, for the contribution it provides to society and to the family. We would cease to see it as ‘economic inactivity’ but value and account for it.
And what about the needs of the children? How do they fit into this narrative?
What next?
We were very vocal…to find out more come to our Conference on 12th November in person or online. I look forward to seeing you there!
Anne Fennell, Chair
Anne, Ange & Anna
Don’t forget the Babies
Anna & Ange with Stephen Kinnock
A couple of days before Anne, Ange and I were due to set off to Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference I messaged Ange and said, ‘Shall I bring the babies?’ The babies in question were plastic and we had affectionately named them Mandy and Leo (Sayer). Their last trip out of the cupboard was around the community centre hall in a toy pram.
Anne & Ange with Frank Cottrell-Boyce
I can safely say that they were our secret weapon at the conference! So many people stopped to ask us, ‘What is it with the babies?’ In the main, people’s response to us was resoundingly positive. Our Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce gladly held one of them for a photo when we told him who we were representing.
Speaking up
Anne, Ange and I worked our socks off attending every meeting about childcare and asked questions. When we felt our standpoint was being silenced, we spoke up. We thought of you all, who like us, have many times felt silenced and marginalised and didn’t let them off the hook. In other sessions, panellists said things that we have been saying for a long time: Support for parents, parents’ desire to be with their children, and putting children at the heart of policy.
Explaining 'Mandy' & 'Leo' to the security guards
We chased MPs around to get photos, secreted MAHM leaflets into the laps of anyone we could and laughed our heads off when we made Wes Streeting and Jon Sopel laugh during an interview on LBC Radio as we held our waving babies aloft. A look of bewilderment on their faces turned to laughter.
Don’t give up
We are all human and we know how much joy our children give. We must not give up hope that we can change perceptions. ‘Mandy’ and ‘Leo’ are believers; let’s join them in speaking truth to power!
Anna King
