Mackenzie Dawson, best known for giving Gwyneth Paltrow what for, explained in the New York Post yesterday “Why Working Moms Don’t Have It Better in Europe.” The Europeans’ famously generous parental-leave policies have downsides, she says, and their social attitudes can be surprisingly retro:

‐Employers are reluctant to hire someone who has the right to take two years off.


‐“Your company is required to hold your job until you come back from family leave — but they can fire you a month after you return.”

‐“You’re legally required to tell your boss as soon as you find out you’re pregnant — and provide medical proof.”

‐“There’s still a prevailing notion that moms should be the main caregivers, housekeepers and cooks, even if they work.”

‐A working mother with small children will be declared a Rabenmutter — “a ‘raven mother,’ after the raven (apparently the terrible moms of the bird world, as they nudge their babies out of the nest upon hatching).”