On the subject of having children and wielding power

[nanila]

If you're not up on UK politics, there has been a kerfuffle recently because one of the candidates for Conservative Party Leader (and thus Prime Minister) has declared heavily implied that having children confers upon a parent an additional level of empathy, long-sightedness and investment in the future. Hence the other candidate, who is childless, is not as well suited to wield power and lead the party (and thus the country). Both of the candidates are women.

Has the lack of correlation between parenthood and sagacity really been so insufficiently demonstrated by men in power who have children?

ETA: In the time it took me to write this post, Candidate #1 has withdrawn from the leadership race.

Comments

[rmc28]

I will note that "the quad" at the top of the previous government (Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Alexander) all had children under 10 at the time, as referenced in Bagehot's column from 2011, The Gruffalo years.

[legionseagle]

I don't precisely blame Cameron for leaving his kid in the pub, but it doesn't actually imply longsightedness.

[davidgillon]

Not to mention having an apparent utter inability to project what he was doing to disabled people to what it would have meant for Ivan if he had survived.

[davidgillon]

Leadsom has gone? Oh, thank God!

Not that I'm exactly thrilled with the prospect of Theresa May as PM, she was scary enough as Home Secretary, but the prospect of undead-Thatcher, sorry, Leadsom, as PM was terrifying.

[perennialanna]

And there's a paragraph none of us dreamed we could write a month ago...

[oursin]

This is an assumption that never fails to irk me: whether it's men who are born again into being caring beings in fatherhood, or the notion that parenthood in general makes you less selfish, because there is a difference between wanting things for the fruits of your own loins, and wanting better for the world at large, and these may come into conflict. There is a long, long, history of non-parents who put their energies into improving the conditions for other people's children or generations yet to come.

Also, and this may be to do with my particular generational context, anyone who was of child-bearing years around the 1970s was being inundated with angst about over-population and the subtext that it was selfish to have kids, or at least more than replacement numbers.

[angrboda]

Obviously people who have children are Better In Every Way than people who don't. This is actually something that people who choose not to have children (and indeed people who would like to have some but can't for this or that reason) is reminded of fairly often. Children make you perfect. Or something. *rolls eyes*

I bet Mrs Loathsome is also the sort of person who will flat out insist that someone will regret their decision of not having children even though she barely knows that person.

[alatefeline]

Am I allowed to say "good riddance" from this side of the Atlantic?

[ankaret]

I occasionally wonder whether he's vindictive enough to actually blame other disabled people for surviving.

[davidgillon]

You wouldn't be the first on to wonder that. I tend to the view he just can't empathize with anyone from a different background. ISTR there's an interview with SamCam where she's pretty scathing about him not being aware of the aid they were getting with Ivan.

[recessional]

Oh the fun thing is we STILL get the subtext of it being selfish to have kids. Also to not have kids. Also to angst about not having kids if we wanted kids but didn't have them. *sigh*

[nanila]

Also to angst about having kids when we wanted them but then wonder about all the things we might be doing if we hadn't. And to feel guilty about even having that thought.

So many ways to beat ourselves up! Yay! /o\

[nanila]

Candidate 1 had the temerity to suggest all of this when she *knew* that Candidate 2 *had* wanted children and was unable to have them. Which adds a whole new dimension of appallingly tactless to the whole debacle.

[nanila]

Absolutely. And agreed. I'm not, by any means, thrilled to have Candidate 2 as Prime Minister, but I am definitely less appalled than I would have been if it had been Candidate 1.

[nanila]

The conspiracy theorists will be having a field day with the idea that fielding Leadsom as a candidate was a ploy to lull us all into accepting May as the only palatable alternative. Erk.

[nanila]

There's a part of me that still hasn't quite accepted that all this is happening.

[nanila]

Thank you for providing Exhibit A out of 12384756165. Approximately.

[nanila]

Or situational awareness, which is also a desirable leadership quality.

[hunningham]

Can I just say Thatcher? I think of her every time someone suggests that mother of children = more empathetic and caring

[nanila]

Thatcher has been invoked a fair bit recently, to describe both candidates. But yes, definitely works as an illustration of the wrongheadedness of assuming parenthood magically imbues a person with anything.

[davidgillon]

The concept of Theresa May as the more liberal candidate for PM (or anything) is just so bizarre!

[davidgillon]

There's a considerable part of me wishes it wasn't.

[recessional]

Yes, I hadn't realized that dimension until I read a CBC article and was like " . . . what."

Like there's Normal Ridiculous Patriarchy Shit to Spout, of which this is standard, and then there's . . . being that kind of fucking jerk. Like wow.

[silveradept]

Sorry, back here in the States we're still struggling with the idea that someone with a uterus could actually be a leader.

But yes, parenthood confers no special powers of wisdom other than the experience of being a parent.

[nanila]

...parenthood confers no special powers of wisdom other than the experience of being a parent.

Yes. Extracting any wisdom or insight from that experience requires an effort. It's certainly not conferred automatically.