But just because an issue is a social one that can't just be solved with a few new laws or regulations here and there, doesn't mean people shouldn't make noise about it. On the contrary, making noise and trying to keep people focused on the issue is the only way to see mindsets evolve over time.
I'm not so sure that there is no pay gap for single men and women in equal circumstances. Not in jobs with fixed payscales, since that would be illegal - but in the ones with negotiable wages, on average, yes. Though as mentioned, I certainly wouldn't know how that could be fixed by any law, it really is a question of slow adjustment to society's expectations of how men and women are supposed to behave.
Certainly, it's tricky. Though improved and expanded child care and kindergarten would at least reduce the problem quite a bit - American women are significantly more likely than those in many other countries to stop working altogether for a number of years, instead of merely being on maternity leave for e.g. six months or a year.
Some Scandinavian countries are trying to force parents to divide tasks more equally by making paternity leave essentially obligatory, so having children will briefly interrupt both parents' careers rather than just the mother's. Seems heavy-handed to say the least, but in a way it fits with the broader idea of moving away, also for men, from the old view of 'education, then work, then retirement' towards a more flexible career in which extended leave (for children or for something else) or new studies can interrupt the main career when appropriate.
Valid enough questions, but singling out the having and raising children as a uniquely promoted goal, with all the privileges related to it, does have obvious arguments behind it: no society will get far in the long run without enough children being born. The affordability of pensions is looking bad enough as it is, families really do need support to have children.
But yeah, that's not much use to the employer who has to suffer the consequences in the short term. If it's a productive worker who's important for the company in the middle or long term, that's one thing, but if it's the kind of job where the worker would only be expected to stay for a few years at most in any case, I can't blame employers for being wary.
Who said anything about radically altering the way we are all collectively living our lives?
One of the points I'm trying to make here, is that while gender stereotypes, which in turn influence gender behaviour and social norms, are obviously based in biology, society should be more open to the fact that individual women and men conform to those stereotypes to wildly varying degrees or in some cases really not at all - and should leave room for that. The law generally does do that, by now - but society not necessarily.
I see your point, but I'm sure you also realize that if there is such a bias from the liberal media establishment, it's a defensive reflex because in reality such women are indeed viewed negatively - hence feminists expect TV and movies to do their part in changing that, and get upset if they don't.
This is actually a good example of what I was saying above regarding things that can't be fixed with laws or government action, just by trying to change people's mindsets over time. Including, of course, through fiction, in TV, movies, books and so on.
It takes two to create a baby - so the financial responsibility belongs with both of them, and neither should be allowed to escape that.
I don't see how divorcing sex from its natural consequence of childbirth contributes to the sexual objectification of women. Clearly it contributes to viewing sex as a recreational activity without major consequences, and if you will to promiscuity. I suppose you could view that as objectification, but then of both men and women - both genders can have sexual partners whom they wouldn't dream of choosing as long-term partners or parents to their children. But historically, many men (at least those with a certain degree of power) already did that anyway, so if anything birth control has levelled the playing field.
