Good motherhood is a step backward...

... according to the French feminist author and philosopher Elizabeth Badinter in reviews of her book Conflict, Women and Mothers. Reports suggest that she and her feminist friend, Sabine Salmon, president of Femmes Solidaire have little time for French schoolgirls who express the desire to stay at home rather than follow a career. "A very worrying indicator" was Mme. Salmon's verdict.

Mme. Badinter rails against the new image of the "ideal Mother" who breast feeds for six months before returning to work, rejects (on ecology grounds) disposable nappies and occasionally lets her baby sleep in her bed.

Feminists have a different thrust in England where, through WATCH (Women and the Church), they are currently busy emasculating the Established Church in the guise of equality (in Wales their Archbishop is doing the job for them) so perhaps girls here will be spared condemnation for using their own free will until that job is complete.

How long before the inconvenience of motherhood is completely avoided by conceiving in a dish and raising children like battery hens leaving 'mothers' free of maternal responsibility?