In the 17 March issue of Nursery World she fairly questions the stance some people take, that bringing more men into early years work will raise the status and pay of childcare professionals. I agree that the two issues should be kept separate.
However, there is a fine line to judge between being provocative and being offensive. In my opinion, Ms Campbell definitely crosses that boundary in the second half of this column. She makes sweeping and negative generalisations about men: 'men's abuse of children', 'the masculine association with sex and violence'. Would such sentences be acceptable if the marker for identity were cultural or ethnic group? How can it be at all acceptable to demonise by words half the population, defined by gender?
Since the 1970s there has been one school of thought within the feminist movement that does find this acceptable. It is crucial that important issues within child protection in particular, and early years development in general, are not hitched to that particular bandwagon.
Jennie Lindon, early years consultant, London
