MERES, LIBEREZ-VOUS!

Bringing up children, careers, inequality of wages, access to power. If women were well and truly liberated in the 1970s, mothers, for their part, still aren't there! A survey of their current situation, both revolting and galvanizing.

In the 21st century, bringing up children while pursuing one's professional ambitions is tantamount to a combat sport. To understand this paradox, the authors talked to researchers, thinkers, and, in particular, women! Bringing up children. In today's world, the child may not be the king, but the mother is, without a shadow of a doubt, his slave. Who imposes these new educational norms on women? Why is it so difficult to escape them? Work. Even if the number of women in the work force is quite high, this is nonetheless the rub. Why does the fact of having children tie women down much more than men? Another scandal related to working mothers is the difference in salary for equal work. The authors investigated the actual policies of various businesses in this regard. The Power of women. Women in power are always quick to advertise their success in the family. But are their children really happy? Investigation. And the last great con: the myth of the nuclear family, in a society where monoparental families are increasingly numerous and single mothers who raise their children are common. Yet these new family structures are little mentioned in the media. Why? And, more fundamentally, are these families adequately protected? What kind of progress can we imagine in this domain? Louise Tourret is a journalist and host of the radio programme «Rue des écoles». Marie-Caroline Missir is the Assistant Editor in Chief of L'Express.fr. Both of them are mothers.