It is a valid point, and it does again highlight the problem whereby women make all the sacrifices for child rearing and care in Britain. Those few months at the start are necessary and ought to be respected as such - because of that pesky biology Stella despises so much - but the rest are not. I also think that we need more MPs, not less, despite recent calls to reduce their numbers. Numbers of MPs haven't substantially changed since the 19th century when the population was so much lower than now, so no wonder their workload is increased and representation is reduced. I'd like to see two MPs for each constituency, one male and one female, as standard.
Overall many western countries seem to be going for less representation in that way. Here we've recently reduced the number of health boards, and totally replaced elected school boards with an executive position. It's why the idea of a locum bothers me so much.
Though it is weird because at the same time people have become very focused on things like referendums, constitutions, or elected second chambers, which can in different ways challenge representation although they seem like extensions of the public will.
I often feel at cross-purposes about the female representation in politics question. Generally I don't care if some types of work are female or male dominated, but I think in politics there needs to be balance. I also think that its a mistake to try and socially engineer women into work when their children are very small.
I sometimes think maybe in politics we should be electing elders anyway, who are able to take a longer view. I'd guess that would be a counter-cultural stance at the moment though, people seem to think the elders are trying to sell us all down the river and are out of touch. But it would mean the women in leadership would mostly not be mothers of smalls, they'd have finished that part of their lives.