Where is a woman's place?

IN the old days, girls learned how to cook and sew and, when they left school, they became housewives and mothers. But the feminist movement changed all that. Career women, wearing power suits and carrying mobile phones, are now a familiar sight. They earn six-figure salaries, they call the shots. But are they happy?

Not according to James Tooley, Professor of Education Policy at Newcastle University. He believes that the current education system is failing girls by forcing them to take career paths that make them unhappy. He puts forward his arguments in his new book, The Miseducation of Women, which is due to be published next month.

"Boys and girls are different and the book explores why, in spite of this, we insist on treating them the same and what negative impact it has on girls when they leave school," he says.

"People are so afraid of admitting that boys and girls aren't the same because they think they're going to be accused of discrimination. Let's break this taboo once and for all. Let's celebrate the difference."

Professor Tooley became interested in the subject when he discovered a recent survey of more than 100,000 British and American men and women. They were asked about their lives, both at home and work, and the statistics showed that, over the last 30 years, women have become increasingly unhappy, while men are just as content, if not more so. He decided to investigate the causes of this growing phenomenon and came up with a theory.

"They're what I call 'the Bridget Jones generation'. She expresses the dissatisfaction and unhappiness of many modern women. She may be a fictional character but there is something real behind her."

In the 1950s, women were expected to be homemakers while men went out to work. The feminist revolution of the 1960s and 1970s brought about huge changes.

"Feminists went right to what they thought was the root of the problem. They looked at schooling to change the situation. The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 are, in a way, products of that, and they've transformed what is taught in school.

"But this means that the curriculum is now designed according to the feminist idea that girls should be following the model that was set down for boys. That is, pursuing a career at the expense of all other things. I suggest that this is pushing girls in a direction they don't want to take and there's a whole generation of working women who don't want to be there."

Prof Tooley finds an unlikely ally in the form of feminist author Germaine Greer and he quotes her at length in his book. Like him, she believes that aggressive feminism, and a determination among women to beat men at their own game, actually belittles the contribution women make to society. She describes it as an "injustice" and urges women to celebrate womanhood, not by aping men, but by making the most of their differences.

It is well-known that the traditional career pattern followed by men does not suit their female colleagues. By the time they've established themselves at work, many find they've left it too late to settle down and have a family. Trade unions and employers are trying to encourage women to juggle both work and family by introducing measures such as flexible working hours, but it's still extremely difficult - too difficult for some.

"Women feel pressurised into having a career because they believe that they will not be valued just as a wife or mother. They have to have a career if they are to achieve things, so that's what a lot of them do," says Prof Tooley.

"I'm not saying that all women should stay at home. What I am saying is that men and women should be given a choice about what they do, but that cannot happen until the education system is changed."

Developments in education over the years have, in effect, outlawed any kind of differentiation according to gender. But while Prof Tooley believes this has had a negative effect, some think there are advantages.

Rita Rees, a design technology teacher at Hurworth Comprehensive School, near Darlington, is one of them.

"These days, everyone gets to do subjects that, in the past, were seen as either girls' or boys' subjects only. It's a good idea in theory. It allows them to try out things they wouldn't normally do but the problem is that they do so much, they don't have time to learn the basic skills," she explains.

"In food, for example, they design and create a ready meal. That's all very well but they don't learn basic things like preparing vegetables. In textiles, a lot of them come to us and they don't even know how to thread a needle."

Earlier this year, a survey by the Guides Association revealed that nearly half of all schoolgirls lack even basic cookery skills. Forty per cent of those questioned admitted they couldn't even boil an egg.

Feminists up and down the country welcomed the statistics which, they believed, showed that women were no longer chained to the kitchen sink. At Hurworth, Mrs Rees put a mixed cookery group to the test and both boys and girls found the simple task a struggle.

She says: "I agree that girls do need to be able to cook but boys do too - otherwise they'll starve when they leave home or they'll be spending the rest of their lives living off ready meals.

"There are more work opportunities for girls now and I think it's true that there are a lot of unhappy women out there, but that's because they have careers and still have to go home at the end of a hard day at work and have to do the cooking and look after the house. It shouldn't be like that any more but, unfortunately, it is."

Rather then seeing women cutting back on their working lives, she would like to see men take on more responsibilities at home. It's not one of the proposals Prof Tooley puts forward in his book.

"I've come to a few conclusions but I haven't really tried to put forward any firm proposals. What I want to see is things becoming more open. There should be no more sacred cows in education, no taboos that we're afraid to break. Let's admit that boys and girls are different and ask ourselves what it means," he says.

"Obviously, some women are very happy with their careers and lives, but I get the impression that the majority of them are not. It's them that I want to reach."

*l The Miseducation of Women is published by Continuum on May 17.

* Professor Tooley will be on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 on May 21.