Letter: Glass ceilings

Sir: Kingsley Browne's views ("A revolution of the sexes", 13 October) sound very dated. It's the old argument - women don't progress up the ladder at work because they are not biologically programmed to. He does not consider the fact that with (unnatural) modern longevity and reduced family sizes, women are only nurturing small children for perhaps 10 years out of a working life of 45. They don't progress because the male-defined workplace has no concept of "stopping the clock" in women's careers, allowing them to maintain a limited commitment for those 10 years and then resume their working lives without penalties. If that option were available, women would indeed achieve parity at high levels - they would just be 10 years older than their male counterparts.

JANEY HUBER

Cambridge