Blog: Different priorities’
The poll found only 1% of mothers and 2% of fathers (with children under five) thought the mother in a family, where the father worked and there were small children, should work full-time.
While the report both attacks and praises Labour’s policies, Ms Odone said it was not about party politics.
“The government has been getting more women into full-time work and getting more work out of those women,” she told the BBC.
“What women actually want is to choose their own childcare providers and more opportunity to work part-time.”
She said women who put home and community before work “were seen as subversive by the government, by the elite who have a very different lifestyle and have different priorities”.
Labour had portrayed itself as the party which listened to women, said Ms Odone, but “they have only been listening to a few”.
But Ms Harman rejected much of her analysis.
She said: “The reality is that many mothers want to work because it gives extra income to the household, but also feel they’ve got a contribution to the world of work, as well as in the home.
“To go out to work doesn’t mean that you’re not a real woman, and it doesn’t mean that you’re work-centred at the expense of your family”, she said.
Ms Harman insisted the government had helped family life.
“We’ve more than doubled maternity pay and leave, introduced tax credits, given rights and respect to part-time workers so they’re not regarded as second class citizens, introduced flexible working rights and more than doubled provision of good quality affordable childcare.
“We want to do more to help women, whatever choice they make”, she added.
