#workforce inequality

"Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. Let’s work together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I believe when women succeed, America succeeds." -President Obama

1. Employers will still be more willing to hire men than women, whether they admit it or not, because they don't want to lose workers to paid leave for pregnancy.  Thus women will still feel the need to choose between family and work in order to assuage these worries and succeed in their jobs.

2. It perpetuates the cultural idea that parenting is essentially feminine - that a father's role is on the job, while a mother's role is in the home, and thus mothers alone require paid leave to do the parenting.