KEY POINTS:
Can a woman be top of the political heap with children in tow? Australia's opposition deputy leader doesn't think so.
In an interview in a magazine this week, Julia Gillard asked rhetorically whether John Howard and Peter Costello would be in the positions they are today if they'd had to combine their jobs with the role of chief caregiver.
She said the responsibilities of parenthood were inconsistent with the demands of the highest political office. She may well have a point.
Being the primary parent of young children and being at the top of your game, in any field, is extremely difficult and many decide they can live without the challenge. But most parents of young children are relatively young themselves and who's at the top of their game in their early 30s? Age and experience will always trump youthful vigour, especially when it comes to politics, and if parents are willing to go into a holding pattern, career wise, while they raise their young, they can always accelerate once their children are older.
Jenny Shipley managed to combine her career with being a great wife and mother - and she had Winston Peters to deal with. Margaret Thatcher's Achilles heel was her children and again, she managed to juggle being a wife and mother with being one of the toughest politicians in Britain's history.
It's not impossible to be a top politician or businesswoman with children but as every working woman knows, it will mean compromise. And it will mean having a great man alongside you to share the load.
Instead of complaining about the difficulties of combining children and a career, Julia Gillard should be celebrating that these days women have choice - no kids, stay at home mothering or combining children and a career. And choice is all that women really want.
