In other nations where the state provides good childcare women have historically entered the workforce just fine.
It's the US (and especially California) that drains everything possible from young families.
It's the US (and especially California) that drains everything possible from young families.
Have you seen videos of orphaned animals that bond with stuffed toys or socks or whatever? Cue a DeepDream hallucination triggered by the word "ma-ma": The perfect supernormal stimulus for Baby. Even better than the Peppa Pig nightmare fuel you can already find on Youtube. Little Ash A-10 will be too absorbed to miss you in his cute CarePod.
Worse, this applies down the income ladder, such that childcare workers, cashiers, waiters, etc. are also living at the edge of subsistence because of housing. As a result, the price of these services gets bid up as well. This affects everybody but tends to affect families more than singles, because they can't bunk with roommates and they require a lot more services that involve paying other people.
This isn't really California-specific: families in Eureka, Merced, and Bakersfield do just fine (except for it being boring and not having many opportunities). But most people associate "California" with either the Bay Area or LA, and both of those metros have lots of money flowing in, lots of people flowing in, and restrictive zoning that keeps housing scarce.
If we could, things would get cheaper, and traffic might even get better (since commutes would improve.)
Mostly because California has prop 13 -- the $30B per year transfer of wealth from the young or new into the pockets of Native Sons of the Golden West.