Letters: What women's work is worth

The article "Ireland's comely maidens..." (15 September) makes a misleading polarisation between "modern- progressive" women (who want to go out to work) and "tradit- ional-conservative" women (who want to stay at home). This is simplistic and ignores the achievement of last year's UN Women's Conference at Peking, where it was agreed, by all governments including the Irish, that women's unwaged work - in the home, on the land, in business and in the voluntary/community sector - should be valued and made part of the gross domestic product.

Once implemented, this will have far-reaching consequences for all Irish women in relation to divorce settlements, caring, education, pensions, etc, and will inevitably remove such polarisation, together with the unjust anomalies that create it.

Margaretta D'Arcy

Galway, Ireland