Fascinating discussion of gender feminism, no-fault divorce and family breakdown.
The title is to make the point that the state is effectively father now to many children, that married men are being required to work less and be more involved with their children or be divorced, and that women are under great pressure always to work for money like an old-style father.
There is much on the distinction between equity and gender feminism - the reasonableness of the former and the damage of the latter, with its demonisation of men. Particularly interesting is the contradiction between the criticisms made of married fathers with the promotion of divorce: married fathers are exhorted to spend more time with their children instead of working, while divorced (or evicted) fathers, dumped into bedsits, have to work harder than ever for money to support their ex-wife, children and bedsit, yet without the involvement formerly felt essential in marriage (instead a fortnightly re-enactment of that closeness is promoted as sufficient, just for a sanctioned day or two.)
There is an extraordinary chapter about domestic violence, arguing that there is almost as much violence from women on men as in the other direction. Incredible if true (and it is heavily referenced,) the purpose of the argument is to oppose the feminist opinion, that men are inherently violent and untrustworthy, and have to change to be more feminine to be accepted.
The doziness of the last Conservative government is recorded, during which gender feminism progressed at full speed, so too the non-judgementalism of Family Law judges, and there is a fascinating criticism of court Welfare Officers, who appear to be anti-marriage.
Melanie Phillips has become a hate figure for the left wing establishment. She'd need to be invented if she didn't exist, probably because of the force of her arguments compared with the failure of theirs, but perhaps also that agitators need something to agitate against. I find her far sightedness most impressive. For example, read "All Must Have Prizes", published as long ago as 1996, a demolition of progressive education in Britain, particularly concerning teaching children to read. There seem to be documentaries and articles daily now that give detail of the success of Synthetic Phonics in teaching reading even to teenage children. Melanie Phillips was like a prophet about this, and I suspect "The Sex-Change Society" of being just as correct and prophetic.
