The most important point here is that this is about the company's own self interest and the complainers are asking them to act against that. People who are unable to reconcile the demands of parenthood with those of their job will quit. That's bad for the bottom line, the company wants to avoid that, so they make accommodations. The reward - salary, equity, perks - each employee gets was always about supply and demand and cost of replacement, not mushy ideas of deservedness or fairness.

The second point is that these same people were strangely silent when everything about working conditions benefited them. Long working hours and oncall requirements are far more burdensome to those with families than to those without. Ditto performance-review and promotion standards that require consistent delivery on pre-planned items over a long period of time. Easy enough to arrange your life around that when you have no other demands or commitments. I did that myself when I was single. It's a lot harder when an event within the family - even a joyous one such as a long-desired child - can throw your availability and concentration for an unexpected loop. Goodbye, last 11 months of effort. Have to reset now.

After benefiting from years of policies that favor the childless, suddenly strict equality must be the rule? Please. Again, this is about the company acting in its own self interest. Attrition and lack of diversity are bad in the long run. The complainers are simply easier to replace than those they're complaining about. See first paragraph.