This Sunday Samantha Cameron will be interviewed on TV by Sir Trevor McDonald; in the first of what her husband hopes will be many appearances to bolster his chances of election success.
The consummate PR Sarah Brown has been doing sterling work on Twitter and elsewhere to portray Gordon as a warm-blooded family man worthy of her admiration – and therefore of ours.
It is the politicians’ wives’ task to convince us their husbands are solid family men with responsibilities. That they have a human side. In-jokes. Are capable of romantic gestures.
As Gordon is lampooned as a raging bully, Sarah’s popularity grows. She tweets. She does interviews. She is as available and genial as he is grumpy. Where David is portrayed as implausibly smooth, Samantha is there to show he is trustworthy.
But I’m not interested in what a leader’s wife says about him. I want to know that she is on our side, exerting a positive influence on his policies, whispering constructive ideas in his ear as he sleeps (in the morning he’ll wake up thinking it was his idea).
Back in 1997, we were very excited at the prospect of so many women being in parliament. Family-friendly policies, equality at home and at work, we thought. It’s all going to start making sense.
What the New Labour government focused on was getting more mothers back to work and providing more daycare for their children. We have not seen any changes (apart from rising unemployment) that favour fathers taking a more equal role in raising children.
‘Research has shown that who does what in terms of childcare is still the area that has yet to change dramatically,’ says Janet Reibstein, professor of psychology at Exeter University and author of The Best Kept Secret (Bloomsbury). ‘Working women still do the lion’s share of the domestic chores and the childcare, and this takes a toll on relationships. If men were allowed equal time off for a new baby, sharing childcare would be not just acceptable but supported, it would be an equal deal.’
Now we are very excited by the leaders’ wives. Both Sam and Sarah are working women with small children. What do we want from them? A glimpse into the knicker drawer, or for them to influence their husbands’ policies on work, parenting and equality?
This has been called the Mumsnet election – suggesting that a network of highly communicative mothers will decide the outcome. Gordon and Sarah put in an appearance at the recent Mumsnet 10th birthday party, at which he charmingly introduced himself as ‘Mr Sarah Brown’.
It would be great if women, and mothers, everywhere could use their influence in the forthcoming election, and not just to make their partners look good.
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