I used to love Kirsty Allsopp. It might be my addiction to looking at other peoples homes or the wish to be a craft goddess but I always ended up tuning into her shows.
Recently she's come under scrutiny for what she has said. And I don't blame the people scrutinising her. People have a difference of opinions. And here's my stance on the situation.
She recently said that young women should shun university and instead have kids young, marry, get a house and then look at studying for a degree after the "window of opportunity" has passed.
But why should they. We all teach our kids to learn from our mistakes but being a recent graduate I don't regret attending university at all. Yes I left the course feeling deflated but it taught me life skills and helped me learn who I was and what I wanted to be.
Infact I did follow her advice and I had my child young, in the middle of university infact. I wasn't going to ditch my final year of studies for full time parenthood. No I stuck with my degree, got a job on the side and held down a home for my family. Yes I struggled. But I did it for me.
If people take on Kirsty's advice all I feel will happen is that the well paid workforce will become even more male focused. Women fight to get high paid jobs, to be doctors, lawyers, teachers and politicians. To prove to society that women can do the jobs the same as, if not better than men. By telling girls they shouldn't go to university would wipe out a whole generation of these career women that do still manage to have families.
We might not live in a world where each home has 2.4 children and a dog with a white Pickett fence. But to try and push that on society? I don't feel like Kirsty really gets what happens in the real world.
She talks about helping her daughter get on the property ladder, we can barely make enough for rent let alone a deposit to buy a place. Non skilled jobs pay below the living wage meaning that if you were to enter a job straight out of school then yes you wouldn't have the debt but you wouldn't have a dream job either.
Finally Kirsty, I am a young woman. One that sits in the age bracket you are talking about. I have a child, degree and job. I might not be living in the ideal place but it's working for us. Everyone is different. Everyone wants different things out of life. Some people will want 8 kids and some will want none. Some people will want careers whilst others are happy with tescos. Whatever they do it's none of your business. As long as people are waking up happy that should be all that matters.
Ooooh good post!! Totally agree with you. I am 30, have a degree and 2 kids. I'm a sahm now but i can go back whenever. I do agree that uni isn't the be all and end all and i know loads of people who have a degree and work in sains. I think secondary schools and sixth forms need to work with kids more to decide whether to go to uni and get a useful degree like law etc or whether to get a vocational qual like hairdressing. Stuff like plumbing wasn't even an option when i was choosing, everything was degree degree degree. If only us mums were in charge of the country it would all be ok! ;-)
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