Yonic, I didn't say that men taking leave would stop women breastfeeding. I said that it just makes the bf-ing woman shitter if she is expected to work as well.
In principle, this is just an extension of possibilities that gives families more options.
In practice, this is a way of giving men more options which de facto puts more pressure on women in too many cases (sometimes it just feels like families are machines to put pressure on women and the law should look at lessening those pressures and protecting them before it does anything else)
to be quite clear: I am all in favour of men taking part in childcare. Also doing all the stuff at home that comes from this.
BUT this approach seems to
a. minimise the very particular physical part that a mother plays in baby-parenting, and the effects on her body and mind of pregnancy and childbirth itself
b. start from the premise that men just need permission or the phsyical possibility to do childrearing and domestic tasks. This is not the issue. The issue isn't that LYFE stops men pulling their weight at home. The problem is they don't want to do it.
Some men will say that they can't progress at work if they take this leave, blah blah, others will take it and then take the piss. A minority will use it for what is for. Good old Miles. (But honestly, Miles is the sort who probably would have worked out how to work nearer to home and on a 4 day week anyway.)
Let's look at the precedent: women storming the work place, led by second wave feminists, because of the outrageous injustice that the world of work was rigged to stop women having access to material independence. Well done. I bless those women and I owe them my job, my options, my freedom, my livelihood.
BUT it DOESN'T make men do ANY GODDAMNED THING AT HOME that their women are out at work as long, or longer than them; bringing home as much, or more money.
So I think it is absolutely wrong headed to answer the question:
Q - how can we get men to take more responsibility in the home, and de facto improve their wives' job prospects and other options?
A - give men more freedom and more privileges
BECAUSE THAT IS NOT WHAT THEY USE THEM FOR.
And we have millennia of historical precedent that have taught us that
On the other hand, if we ask a different question:
Q - What happens when women get more independence, more material security and better education?
the answer is always:
A - their children benefit
If you want to help children, you "privilege" women. Actually, I want to help women, per se, for their own sake; but women prioritise children and this has been shown again and again and again.