28th May 2013

SY3 and SY4 -  see the ‘GET BRITAIN FERTILE CAMPAIGN’ http://www.getbritainfertile.com/  , due for launch on 3rd June.  Though it could be the basis of a book, it should account for only two or three lines in your script.  Comes under the guise of health and is perfect for any question on gender and age inequality.  Relate to functionalist perspective, female expressive role, the inevitability of inequality, Weber' s view that cultural ideas shape society and individual actions, along with the role of status in generating social divisions.. From a Marxist Feminist perspective, the campaign…

1.  Disempowers females reminding them that biology rules and that their options are limited.  Women shouldn’t think they have choices.    

2.  Suggests that women need help.  Somebody has to assist females to help make them fertile before they can even consider conceiving, presumably because they've been at work (an unnatural role which has rendered them infertile).

3.  Makes it seem as though the real job of women is to reproduce (for Britain) and that they should be mindful of the rules of the game, which are different to the rules for men; (women are closer to nature).

4.  Ridicules older women in general, but in particular older women who decide to have babies later in life rather than sooner    Makes later motherhood seem false, unnatural, out of order.

5.  It suggests that children should be conceived regardless of psycho-social circumstances, at a time when 20.2% of children in the UK are raised in poverty* and teenage pregnancy rates are higher than in any other Western European society

6.  Creates anxiety over pregnancy (‘Can I get pregnant? How will I know if I don’t try?  ‘Here’s a national campaign telling me I’ve left it too late! Have I left it too late?’)    This turns into an urgent need to know – who will benefit from this urgent need to know? 

 

Whose idea was it?  First Response is a  pregnancy test…marvellous for publicity.  Everyone now knows about First Response...

 

* Figures though set to rise according to predictions by Institute of Fiscal Studies (growth of 400,000 between 2011 and 2015, with a total of 800,000 by 2020).