TV star Kathryn Thomas has blasted Kirstie Allsopp for claiming women should build a family before a career.
The Location Location Location presenter caused outrage after putting forward her views on what young women should do.
The Channel 4 star said she would tell her daughter if she had one: “Darling, do you know what? Don’t go to university.
“Start work straight after school, stay at home, save up your deposit – I’ll help you, let’s get you into a flat. And then we can find you a nice boyfriend and you can have a baby by the time you’re 27.”
Bonkers: Kathryn doesn’t understand Kirsty Allsopp’s view on women
But Kathryn admitted in her Star column that she was “shocked” that she would put forward such an “old-fashioned theory”.
She said: “I was shocked to hear such an old-fashioned theory being put forward by an intelligent woman we have come to know through her successful career as a television presenter.
“A well paid one at that. Kirstie had her first child at 35 and her second at 37 and she is still working. And yet she doesn’t want young woman to follow her example.
Top of her game: Kathryn rose through ranks to get to point in RTE
“Kirstie points out that female fertility levels can plummet after 35 and thus reckons girls – no matter how clever – should get a job after leaving school, raise children, and then go to university when they hit 50.
“Maybe because Kirstie is from an ultra-privileged background, she does not understand that very few of us can leave school at 18, present ourselves to Mr Right in our early 20s, have babies, then make curtains and paint old furniture, safe in the knowledge we will be looked after for the rest of our days.”
Loved up: Kathryn with boyfriend Padraig McLoughlin | VIPIreland.com
And The Voice star claimed that Kirstie forgets women should be able to reach for the stars if they want.
“Why would any woman with a brain postpone the chance to go to college? Education is the most precious think a woman can have,” she added.
“It is the key to success. We have fought for years to change the age-old philosophy than a woman’s place is in the kitchen. Yes it is, if that is where she wants to be.
“But a woman’s place is also in the boardroom, in the Dail, in a multinational company, in the hospital wards and universal lecture halls.”
