Equal rights doesn't come from forcing women to forfeit hard-won maternity leave

That's if you want to share it, of course. I imagine plenty of women won't. I imagine plenty of men would balk at the idea of a career gap, a knock to earnings and endless days at home with a red, sticky, squalling thing not allowing you hot tea or a trip to the toilet. But, well, tough, I say - to both sides.

Proscribed gender roles leave everyone a second class citizen: men take a second class role at home while women take a second class role at work, each status quo feeding the other.

So far the efforts to create equality have concentrated, rightly, on striving to give women equal status in the workplace. Now it's time to strive for equity in the home, not just for women but for men and children too.

Imagine the impact of workplaces where men routinely take career gaps to stay at home with the children, the positive impact on discrimination, the narrowing of the pay discrepancies caused by women-only career interruptions. Fathers being involved in childcare strengthens the father-child bond, stops girls being pushed into gender-proscribed roles and improves dads' happiness rates. It also relieves pressure on mums as dads who have had time at home continue taking an active role in child-rearing and housework, long after returning to work.

We accept quite freely that the mother might not want to work because she thinks her child is fabulous and wants to hang out with that child. Well, what if the father does too? That's not really an acceptable option. You don't hear men saying they want to find a high-earning woman and be a full-time dad. Men are expected to be financially responsible for themselves. Women are not. One gender has all the perks and the other pays for it.

That is not equality.

As there were men who were threatened by competent women taking on senior roles in the workplace, I am sure there are women who are threatened by the thought of dads excelling in caring roles with children. Similarly, as women have long had to worry about discrimination at work, the impact on their finances and hindering their careers by taking extended leave, so too will men fret about these things.

That these are not shared concerns tackled by both genders is not equality.

This new legislation moves in the right direction but it is still not equality.

This new legislation means fathers are only eligible for leave if their wives work - paternity leave should be extended to be independent from the employment status of the mother.

If the leave is transferable it is likely that only the mother will take it up. It takes an act of generosity to give up, as a mother, time with your child that you're entitled to, that friends and peers have enjoyed. It's not like you can recoup it at a later date. Culturally, it's acceptable for a mother to insist her place is at home and the father's place is at work.

At work missing all the milestones and workaday wonders of early babyhood that are, somehow still, the mother's right and the father's luck if he happens to catch them.

It would be selfish for the mother to take the full quota of leave, should the father want it, but understandably so. So the father takes a secondary parental role. That is not equality.

Here's a better suggestion: parental leave should not be shared. The mother should still be entitled to 12 months with her new baby. So should the father. And time taken off work by both parents be mandatory.

Here is equality: men are able to take time off work for antenatal appointments and classes on full pay, just as women are. Fathers are given an equal amount of paternity leave to maternity leave, to run consecutively or concurrently with the mother.

But that's a pipedream for now. For now we have 12 months shared parental leave as another paving slab in the path to first class status for both genders, in the workplace and at home.

It's not equality. Yet.