[syracusa]

They don't "resent" them but they want to be the "BOSS" / get their way in the house, for all the suffering they go through to compete at work and provide.
This can put the woman-mom in a vulnerable spot in the relationship.

I guess there's no free lunch...but in socialism. :)

I'll be darn...check this out: just talked at home and my mom tells me about this friend (my age) who had a baby one year and a half ago...and she is still at home raising the baby, on maternity leave, paid 80% of her salary!!!
Needless to say I am green with envy.

She's been on perfectly legal, paid maternity leave (80% of salary) for a year and a half now. All working women have this right, regardless of position.
And her salary is quite nice for that country!!

Very soon after she started her maternity leave, they came down with this new law that says that all new mothers will receive a flat amount during their maternity leave (up to 2 years, if I am not wrong) instead of percent of own salary. Rationale?

"A child is a child, it is one mouth to feed and every child deserves the same support and treatment from the state. It is only humane and fair".

When I told my mom that if you told this to Americans they would look at you like you freakin lost your mind or something, she just responded:
"I think it is perfectly normal and the right thing to do. If the higher-paid woman wants a superior lifestyle for her child compared to what all other women get, she can simply go back to her high-paid job and pay someone else to take care of baby. This is how much the state pays the "mommy" job - for all mommies".

You can imgine that now it is no longer convenient for professional women to stay on maternity leave that long because the money they get during ML are significantly less than what if they'd received at 80% of their salary.
But for lower-paid women is not bad at all, actually for many this flat amount can be more than what they would have received as percent of their own salary.

As for me here, I would be seen as "disabled" or "handicapped" as a result of pregnancy and I would get a whooping 60% of my salary 3 months after popping the child out (and that's becasue I paid disability insurance from my own paycheck). Then I guess you are just expected to dump your 4 month old in daycare or get a nanny...what else, if you need the income?...
Or just plan NOT TO have the baby in the first place.

Isn't that funny how differently people think on this Earth?
But I still think it is nice to have the "mom" job recognized as a real job that is officially PAID SOMETHING. By the state yes, but it definitely makes a working woman's and a family's life more secure.