'Ill informed' Mary Berry criticised for condemning maternity leave Rosalind Bragg, director of the national charity Maternity Action said Berry's comments were far from helpful and accused her of being "ill informed." We are very disappointed at the comments. Maternity rights are fundamental to women's ability to maintain employment during their child-bearing years. If we backtrack on maternity rights, we will force women out of the workforce, losing valuable skills from the market, and leaving more families in poverty and reliant on benefit. In 2005, 30,000 women left their jobs because of their pregnancy. These were women who didn't choose to, they felt compelled to leave. Returning to work after five weeks may work for some mothers but they are in the minority. We would like to see greater support for women balancing work and caring responsibilities, not ill-informed complaints about women who exercise maternity rights. In other comments set to incite debate, Berry described feminism was "a dirty word," adding that although she would always stand up for women, "I don't want women's rights and all that sort of thing." "I love to have men around and I suppose if you're a true feminist you get on and do it yourself, so no," she said. "I love it when someone says, "I'll get your coat," or, "I'll look after you," or offers you a seat on the bus. I'm thrilled to bits," Berry told the newspaper. "You've got to persuade them [men] gently to do things and, of course, when they come back they say, "Oh, wasn't that fun?"" It is not the first time Berry has made comments that would not go down well with feminists. Speaking last year about her daughter Annabel's love of cooking, Berry told a magazine: "Isn't that lucky for a young wife and mother? You're going to be doing it your whole life so you might as well enjoy it.