When I read it, the message I took away was that current sexist gender roles tend to force men into being breadwinners as opposed to caregivers. Women being a breadwinner with a male caregiver is still looked upon as kind-of curious in certain parts. It's regrettable because it limits flexibility for all the wrong reasons, especially for people in an industry where things like telecommuting are possible.
Of course, then einhverfr went on to the whole abortion/child-support/false-paternity thing, so I don't know anymore.
The thing is, our economy is based on two fundamental assumptions:
1) Labor and capital are separate. Capital hires labor.
2) Labor works outside the home, capital can control things.
The second problem arises pretty clearly (and intractably) from the sort of worker protection laws that Belloc describes in "The Servile State." I.e., by treating employees as the responsibility of the employer, you have serious issues regarding workers comp and so forth when an employee is working outside of an environment that the employer controls.
The example Belloc gives is this:
A farmer hires two men to dig a well. The first is being lowered into the hole by the second and he lets the rope slip and the first worker is injured. If all three were independent agents, the first worker's lawsuit would be against the second worker, but instead it is the employer who is responsible. So this leads to an employer legally compelled to control the workplace. Things like telecommuting are challenging this but only seem to work in certain narrow domains.
So a lot of kinds of work cannot be done in the home for this sort of reason. This means that family life cannot be integrated with work life and therefore must be separate.
To me the answer is to recognize that a labor/capital divide in context with fundamental differences in the nature of motherhood and fatherhood, leads to economic discrimination against women. If we recognize that, then we can challenge that divide and build a more just economy based on smaller units where work life and family life are not so separate.
So these are all pieces of a very complex cultural phenomenon.
Of course, then einhverfr went on to the whole abortion/child-support/false-paternity thing, so I don't know anymore.