Letter: The family: still valued by young people and women

Sir: The obvious answer to Helen Wilkinson's article 'Families. Who needs them?' is, children do. Over a number of years, I presented groups of GCSE religious education students with the task of planning the ideal environment for bringing up children. We discussed community living, kibbutz, one-parent families and so on, and although we realised that these 'alternative' family set-ups could have much to offer, the students invariably concluded that the ideal for children was a two- parent family in a permanent relationship, namely marriage.

Those of us who believe in marriage and the 'family' are not all heralding a return of 'back to basics' with its 'Ovaltine' image of the family. The family of the Fifties was suffocating for many women who were denied the right to be themselves. But families are essential for our future. The stability of society rests on the stability of the family. What is needed is a reappraisal of the family, and especially a reappraisal of the role of women within the family.

Yours faithfully,

B. A. TOPP

Clifford's Mesne,

Gloucestershire

21 September