Education is definately the key and the lack of this is partly due (to my eternal shame as a woman and to the sound of Emmeline Pankhurst turning in her grave) to the sex discrimination act. Women are so eager to be treated as equal to men that schools no longer appear to teach home-maker skills to ANY sex. Not only do boys not get to play in the Wendy house with the dolls, but now girls don't have the chance to either.

I attended a grammar school where the onus was on getting qualifications for University (and thus into nursing or teaching) and for home making/parenthood. Whilst I was there, the Grammar/Secondary Modern schools were merged (thank you, Maggie Thatcher NOT!) and the Grammar School girls were given the opportunity to learn office skills. In order to make time in the curriculum for these lessons, the domestic sciences were drastically reduced or dropped. The boys, in moving from the mixed Secondary Modern to the single sex new boys Comprehensive also lost the opportunity to learn the domestic sciences - something that I consider has helped towards the decline in personal development and general 'taking care of oneself' ability in men of my age and younger.

When your only role model or teacher is your own parent, you end up repeating the same mistakes that they made.

LTS