DENMARK: Should I Not?

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Copenhagen's School Board was startled. Inger Merete Nordentoft, Communist member of the Rigsdag, principal of a large school, and spinster, applied for three months' maternity leave. Board members grew curious. Who was the father? Would Miss Nordentoft marry him? The grey-haired 42-year-old schoolmistress, who had belonged to the Danish underground during the occupation, and had spent five months in a German prison, retorted that it was none of their business. She threatened to sue if they fired her. Already foster-mother of a year-old adopted child, she loves children, says they love her. Press, clergy, and teachers argued the case, most demanding that she be discharged.

Her tired face twitching nervously, Miss Nordentoft told a reporter that, of the thousand letters she had received, only ten were angry. Said she: "The public has given me the responsibility for other people's children. Should I not be able to bring up a child of my own, then?" The School Board considered whether or not the expectant mother's rhetorical question was irrelevant. Decision: it was not irrelevant; she could have her maternity leave, keep her job.