@adam-l I am not even sure that it did make sense back then. it still isn't fair to men to give women these privileges to be less effective and remain employed. Men are being excluded form jobs for these women and then the women are being paid equally for less than equal work.

I can see that there is an argument that it is in the interest of the state to limit the damage done by working mothers to the next generation but really that is only a sticking plaster that men are paying for. In the end if you want to reproduce, you need to be able to afford it.

The working class were able to reproduce fine before maternity leave. Children need their mother right up to primary school age, not just in the first months. Governments have gradually tried to roll out the free childcare provisions further and further to make up for the loss of mothers to children but in the end the sticking plaster is not working. Dump your kids on semi educated woman who is caring for a lot of other kids (day care) and go off to work is not the same as care for and educate your children and it shows in the weak, immature, maladjusted youth of today.

All this "tax" on employers goes into the employer's wage budget. That budget does not go to pay working men who feed families, so no wonder now its hard to keep a family on one income, regardless of excessive female expectations.