> Governments try to push up "workforce participation" to increase tax revenues and reduce benefits outlays, and increasing the incentives for women to go back to work a few months after childbirth is part of that.
This theory conflicts with the fact that the trend over time has been toward more support for parental leave, not less, on the part of government.
Parental leave only after women entered the workforce in such large numbers, and we've seen (and felt) the negative consequences from trying to outsource child-rearing so completely. Parental leave was not as necessary because there were more stay-at-home parents; and before early 1900s it was more common for both parents to work from home (i.e. on a farm).
This theory conflicts with the fact that the trend over time has been toward more support for parental leave, not less, on the part of government.