I’d suggest that the biological difference is not the important piece of this. Many women can work through most of their pregnancy, and they can choose not to breastfeed. (Yes, they might be foolish to do so, but it’s a decision, not an absolute constraint. ) So the “brunt of the biology,” as Elrena puts it, might amount to as little as, say, missing work for the last month of pregnancy and two weeks after the birth. (Sadly, I think many women are forced to take no more time off than that.)

My point is not to argue that the situation for working mothers and fathers is the same–it clearly is not. But what makes them different is not the biology, but exactly the kinds of social constructs that lead to the situation Lydia describes, or to the different reactions at work when it’s a mother or a father who takes time off to take the kid to the doctor.

And, incidentally, this is anecdote, not research, but when my kids were sick for an extending period, and I left often to go to the hospital or the doctor, I suffered severely at work, even though I completed all my assignments and did my job. It’s not quite so black and white. Bosses don’t like family complications in fathers, either.