Nick Clegg has appointed a “Power-mum” as his new chief media adviser.
Emma Gilpin-Jacobs was dubbed with the title by Management Today in her previous role as global communications director for the FT.
The 44-year-old mother of twins told the journal how she rises at 6am to play with them before setting off to work, and said mothers should overcome the “stigma” of hiring help with their children. She has a full-time nanny but also had a temporary second nanny when her son was not sleeping well.
“I have a lot of help,” Ms Gilpin-Jacobs said. “I think any woman who has a serious job and kids needs a lot of help. You have to outsource to make it work. We have to take the stigma out of it and stop with the guilt. If you are successful and you can pay others to help then why not, there is nothing wrong with it. Our nanny is better and more patient and knows more about it than we do.”
She added: “Ultimately none of this is easy. It is bloody hard work when your kids are ill or when something is going wrong.”
Ms Gilpin-Jacobs called for more tax breaks for women buying childcare, adding: “I’d love to see more businesses with creches but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Becoming a mum had made her “military about time”, and she warned: “My patience for bullshit has dramatically decreased.”
