Letter: Is the First Lady a Stepford Wife?

Sir: I was one of those who, along with Tessa Blackstone (letter, 2 December), participated in the meeting with Hillary Clinton and know that the American embassy expected Polly Toynbee to write about it.

The debate occasionally broke through the social niceties to confront real issues. In one such moment, I asked her why single mothers had become the symbols at the heart of the moral and social debates and the male backlash both here and in the US. Her response was professional and disappointing. It was a well-rehearsed reply, as if for an audience of political foes. It had more to do with avoiding banana skins than engaging with the issues and left no one in a position to probe further.

I do not blame her for this. The pressures upon her have been intense. I felt she was an intelligent woman constrained in a role she would not have chosen for herself.

To accuse her of being a Stepford Wife ("What have they done to Hillary?" 30 November) may be a little unfair, but to see her as fulfilling her destiny in her own right is a lot naive.

May I please also use this opportunity, for the sake of my colleagues, to point out that I am the director of the London TEC Council, not the "National TEC Council", although I am grateful that Polly Toynbee wanted to promote me.

Yours sincerely,

Sue Slipman

Director

London TEC Council

London, SE1

1 December