Defining Child’s Role in an Equal World

Re “Concerns Mount on Role of Parents on Front Line,” Feb. 22: Our definition of equality needs to be reexamined. By what criteria have men and women been deemed equal? Is equality contingent upon commensurate performance by men and women?

Male achievement standards have (defined) equality. But equality that derives from these criteria denigrates motherhood. Motherhood was once taken for granted. Now it is regarded as an impediment to success.

A woman’s womb is perhaps the crux of the difference between men and women. That life develops in the womb is irrefutable. Is there a more noble contribution than the creation of a human life?

But childbirth is hardly esteemed in an over-populated, economically anemic world. If you are a woman, you must repudiate your procreative powers or else relegate them to the periphery of your equal rights agenda.

Women and men are equal, not identical. Unless the differences are respected, children will indeed be missing from this equation.

VERONICA DODERLEIN

Canoga Park