[nothrabannosir]

> - lack of maternity leave

Tangential: I heard a wild, but interesting argument the other day about how allowing different maternity leave between men and women, ceteris paribus, would lead to gender discrimination when hiring. The reasoning was: regardless of the reason being "fair", companies would see women as having a higher chance of taking more leave than men, and thus have less value, overall.

It was an interesting argument for prohibiting differences between paternity and maternity leave, i.o.w.: you must give new fathers as much time off as you give new mothers, no more, no less.

It sounded nice so I never researched whether it was experimentally confirmed / disproven :)

[abusoufiyan]

This is why very progressive countries implement combined paternal and maternal leave. If one spouse doesn't take it, the couple loses that time.

The pressure on men and women to take time off after a baby diminishes the effect you speak of.