Children? That's Women's Work...

It's great news that the Assembly has - at last - established a Children's Committee as a means of challenging, scrutinising and investigating all aspects of the Government's (and the Assembly's) actions for their relevance to children. It will also be widely welcomed that this new body will have Helen Mary Jones as its Chair. She has a proven track record and deep personal commitment to this field of work as evidenced both prior to and since becoming an AM. Neither would I wish to challenge the credentials of any other member of the Committee.
But I can't help being disturbed by the fact that the Committee is entirely made up of women. It's as if the Assembly has taken the stance that children's welfare is the domain of Women. An antiquated and frankly dangerous stance. This is the first time the Assembly has created a single-gender committee - and there would be uproar if it were all-male. It's doubly unfortunate that they have done so now in a way that reinforces narrow stereotypes. I understand that the process of establishing membership means that each party puts forward the names of its representatives in isolation of one another. Therefore the potential for this happening again is huge. Surely there should be a moderating mechanism that helps redress any imbalances before the make-up of the committee is finalised? It would be very unfortunate if the work of this valuable body were to be hampered by the time it might have to spend being investigated for imbalance by the Assembly's own Equal Opportunities Committee - which ironically has many members in common with the Children's Committee itself!