Fathers and Families
Erin Pizzey criticised the views expressed by Harman and her co-authors in the 1990 IPPR report "The Family Way". Writing in the Daily Mail, Pizzey claimed the report was a "staggering attack on men and their role in modern life" as a result of its stating, "it cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life or that the presence of fathers in families is necessarily a means to social cohesion". In May 2008 an interview she gave to think tank Civitas Harman stated that there was "no ideal type of household in which to bring up children".
In June 2008, two members of Fathers 4 Justice staged a protest on the roof of her house in Herne Hill, South East London, with a banner that read: "A father is for life not just conception." After they climbed back off the roof they were arrested by the Metropolitan Police and bailed until 16 July 2008. On the morning of 9 July 2008, fathers for justice again climbed on Harman's roof with a banner that read, "Stop war on dads." One of the complaints of the protesters was that Harman had refused their requests for a meeting yet she denied that they had even requested such a meeting.
Read more about this topic: Harriet Harman
Famous quotes containing the words fathers and, fathers and/or families:
“At the gambling table, there are no fathers and sons.”
—Chinese proverb.
“... my mother ... piled up her hair and went out to teach in a one-room school, mountain children little and big alike. The first day, some fathers came along to see if she could whip their children, some who were older than she. She told the children that she did intend to whip them if they became unruly and refused to learn, and invited the fathers to stay if they liked and she’d be able to whip them too. Having been thus tried out, she was a great success with them after that.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)
“Notwithstanding the unaccountable apathy with which of late years the Indians have been sometimes abandoned to their enemies, it is not to be doubted that it is the good pleasure and the understanding of all humane persons in the Republic, of the men and the matrons sitting in the thriving independent families all over the land, that they shall be duly cared for; that they shall taste justice and love from all to whom we have delegated the office of dealing with them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)