why because she is obviously a career driven character who would treat women and men equally - or am i way off there?
Way off!!
One of the most obvious differences between men and women is the ability to have children - so how can you treat them "equally" with respect to the initial impact of a child arriving into their lives?
Working couple have child:
- Man takes anywhere between no time off and 2 weeks, generally from holidays, maybe paternal or parental leave (based on my experience)
- Woman takes maternity leave - does she take maximum leave or is she "dedicated" enough to make it back ASAP?
I am my own person, so I would make my decision based on what suited my family's needs, but I still would feel that if I reported to someone who was back to work within a month that it would be a black mark against my future career - ie my commitment to the company is questionable.
Bear in mind this "1 month maternity leave boss" is an entirely hypothetical figure to me - so maybe I'm missing out on something.