My message that mothers are valuable to society and that children need their mothers in the first three years for their emotional security and mental health isn’t a dated message but a necessary and timely one. I truly must have hit a nerve with so many responses (Letters, Sept. 30) to my “A Woman Doesn’t Need an Office to Be Empowered” (op-ed, Sept. 21) on the value of mothers to society. The defensiveness of so many to the concept that a woman’s value is so much more than how much she earns only reinforces my concern that society has overlooked nurturing as the most important labor. We have to do even more to increase opportunities for mothers or primary caregivers to work part-time or flexibly so they may maximize their time with their children. My central message has always been and always will be that the needs of children must come first and mothers are essential to their emotional development.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 06, 2019 18:45 UTC