Sir, – Paula Fyans's new book The Invisible Job (Sheila Wayman, "'Do I have to do everything around here?' Irish women and the 'invisible job'", Health + Family, March 9th) adds welcome practical data to a long-running debate.
It is revealing to see on one comprehensive list of all the tasks that have to be done, regardless of the “boulders thrown in to the mix” of family life.
If perceived equitable sharing is to be possible, and “men have much to benefit in liberation from their own oppression”, there is perhaps a companion volume to be written.
Corporate job descriptions would benefit from a similar analysis, especially around flexibility. Teamwork and shared expertise are part of the theory but, in reality, do they make it possible for the only expert on a software product to readily abandon a meeting with a key client when a child throws up in the creche? If they did, Paula Fyans’s book would not need to be written.
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The reality is that the flexibility to share the caring role costs money, and that cost is largely borne by individuals rather than the corporate world or the State. Making lists is useful, but systemic change is a bigger challenge. – Yours, etc,
MAUREEN ROWAN,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.