KEY POINTS:
One wonders whether Rachida Dati could possibly have foreseen the almost entirely female media furore that greeted her when she sashayed out in her chic suit and stilettos to return to work, a mere five days after having her first baby, a girl, Zohra, by caesarean section.
The main criticism of Dati was that by playing superwoman, by opting for a quasi-macho show of strength, she had undermined the very concept of maternity leave for ordinary women. That by playing the "unstoppable" card she had done womankind a disservice by making them look feeble - fakers, drips - for wanting to use their own leave.
Really? To my mind, Dati certainly undermined women, but not because of any show of strength. In her dreams. In reality, just by insisting on that ridiculously early return, Dati gave a master-class in feminine weakness.
It isn't hard to understand the feminist anger towards Dati, now presumably cast for all time as "the Mummy Judas". One of the most galling aspects of all this is that it confirms an entrenched corporate belief that female maternity leave is an expensive inconvenience, a PC luxury, even a piss-take.
At the very least, runs the rationale, it's pathetic. Don't women in Africa pop them out and instantly return to cutting corn with a newborn in one arm and a scythe in the other? Well, sorry to poop the misogynist party, but the reality in developing countries, with little or no postnatal care, is a horrendous mortality rate for mother and child.
In the West, where we cosseted whingers are allowed beds and painkillers, I can't have been the only one to wince at the sight of Dati in her "I'm back, world" suit and "perhaps don't f*** me just yet" stilettos. Having had caesareans ourselves, some of us are painfully aware that the staples binding her scar are unlikely to be out yet, that Dati is probably still bleeding and that her milk will have "arrived", a polite way of saying your breasts are on fire.
All this, and Dati is 43, and it's her first baby: is it really so reductive to feel that she might be better off back home, bonding with Zohra, rather than faxing through her maternal devotion? One would think not. But, still, none of this touches upon the main reason why Dati has let women down by returning to work so soon, namely the suspicion that, far from being a display of dynamism, it is all about fear and insecurity about her job and a desperate, all-too "female" desire to impress and please.
Indeed, it seems likely that Dati was too wary or, if you want to be harsh, cowardly to take the time she was due. And while some might argue that it's a matter of personal choice, it remains disappointing. Just as it's important to win rights, such as maternity leave, it is crucial for women to have the guts to use them. A truly strong character would, unlike Dati, have taken every second of her allotted leave. Just like a man.
It's odd then to keep seeing Dati described as "behaving like a man".
Bar a few cartoon macho Wall St types, this isn't male behaviour. You only have to look at unequal pay to realise that men tend to know their rights and their worth. Indeed, last week, of all weeks, a senior British politician was heard suggesting that new fathers (fathers!) be given a year off.
Is this where we're heading, a world where men get given more leave, while women are too insecure to take their own? It wasn't by being superwoman that Dati let working women down - it was by being a complete wimp.
- OBSERVER
