About 30 years ago, I read as much as I could to try to understand why I had ended up with some "barefoot and pregnant" type life as the full-time wife in a 1950s style marriage. My takeaway: European women did better than American women in terms of greater wage parity, etc, because they focused on getting accommodation for the burden of bearing children plus help carrying the burden of rearing the children.

Quotas seem unlikely to work as long as America continues to be the only developed nation that lacks paid maternity leave as a kind of "canary in the coal mine" test of this issue.

My sons are adults. I'm post menopausal. I'm largely out of touch with childcare issues today. But our continued lack of maternity leave makes me feel that we are likely still in the dark ages on this issue.