Marie Antoinette, the feminist

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, remains famous.

She asked if the poor could not buy bread, why not 'let them eat cake?'

It is hard to tell if she was being callously sarcastic, she was so far removed from reality she really did not understand them to be too poor to eat or if she was some sort of progressive who would have liked to throw open the royal kitchens.

She was given a bad press by the revolutionary leaders because she was Austrian. Foreign. And while (at the beginning of the revolution) it could be seen as disloyal to attack the king, attacking him through the malign influence of his scheming wife was far more acceptable.

She was the soft underbelly of the monarchy.

Powerless, yet condemned because of her husband's governments' failings.

A feminist icon if ever there was one!

It is often forgotten today, but the real reason Marie Antoinette was reviled by the people was her 'farm'. She actually had a miniature farm made so she could learn something of the life of the poor.

But the poor saw it differently. What was back breaking work for them was some sort of 'play' for her.

Again Marie Antoinette presaged the modern feminist. Most women, particularly mothers, who go out to work do so to provide for their families. Just like most men. They are far more likely to be cleaners or nurses than they are lawyers or doctors.

Yet when I hear feminists talk, it is not about work. It is about 'career'. About the self worth and fulfilment of 'doing something productive'. Of proving their worth, showing they can make it in a place of work. This is not the sort of talk I hear from cleaners.

It is not about doing it for the money.

Guess what, 'work' IS about doing it for the money. When 'career' becomes more important than the earnings, it is no longer work, it is play.

The modern career minded feminist truly is a present day Marie Antoinette. Has she any idea how her talk sounds to a mother who can't afford to stop work and spend time with her children? Mothers who are condemned to endless hours of drudgery while the state takes their children and offers substandard child care, and misguided early attempts at education.

Indeed, they are cut from the same cloth.

I have far more in common with a poor working mother than any career following feminist ever will.