The amount of "parental leave" due to pregnancy is very much a fiscal issue. When a woman is on paid maternity leave, she is effectively being paid for doing absolutely nothing work-related. This means that everyone else at her place of work has to pick up her slack during the mother's time off.
Unless a woman chooses to not have a child (or cannot have a child) in her lifetime, this privilege is awarded to every woman who is pregnant. So even if a woman has to pick up the slack for another woman who is pregnant, it will even out for the currently working woman once she has a child. Unfortunately, nothing evens out for men.
Collectively, women have to work less hard than men to receive the same wages. Maybe this plays into the alleged income gap?
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I think either nobody should get maternity/paternity leave, or everyone should. Also, people without kids should get a little bonus at the end of the year for not having to leave work for weeks on end.