IT’S TELLING THAT SHE WAITED UNTIL RETIREMENT TO SAY THIS: Girls must choose career or motherhood, says top head; Leading headteacher tells schoolgirls they need to choose between career or motherhood.

Teachers must tell girls that they need to choose between their careers and motherhood instead of misleading them with the “lie” that they can have both, according to a leading headmistress.

Vivienne Durham, of independent Francis Holland Regent’s Park, says girls need to be prepared for the real world and teachers should not tell them there is no “glass ceiling”.

“I’m sorry, I’m not a feminist. I believe there is a glass ceiling – if we tell them there isn’t one, we are telling them a lie,” she said in an interview with Absolutely Education magazine.

“Women still have to plan for a biological fact – ie motherhood.”

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mrs Durham said that girls need to be realistic about the decisions they make and should not be criticised for choosing one path over another. . . .

Mrs Durham’s comments come after one of Britain’s leading fertility experts wrote to education secretary Nicky Morgan earlier this year demanding that school pupils are warned of the dangers of delaying motherhood.

Geeta Nargund called for fertility to be discussed in school to stop the “shock” of women who later realise they have left it too late to start a family after first pursuing their careers.

A report by former Minister for Women and Equalities, Jo Swinson, published last year separately said that girls cannot “have it all” and are unable to combine a successful career, motherhood and beauty.

I wonder if gathering demographic clouds are starting to change the messaging on this sort of thing.