The extension of maternity leave may be sabotaging women's careers, the head of the new equality watchdog has warned.
Nicola Brewer, chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, said employers were thinking twice about offering them jobs or promotion.
This, she said in an interview with The Times, was because women were now entitled to a year off for each child.
She said current laws had unintentionally made "women a less attractive prospect to employers."
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Ms Brewer said her concerns were reinforced when businessman Sir Alan Sugar said many employers discarded CVs of women of child-bearing age.
She said: "There has been a sea change on maternity leave and flexible work and we welcome that. But the effect has been to reinforce some traditional patterns.
"The Work and Families Act has not freed parents and given them real choice. It is based on assumptions, and some of the terms reinforce the traditional pattern of women as the carers of children.
"We have come a long way but after winning all these gains it is worth asking - are we still on the right track?
"The thing I worry about is that the current legislation and regulations have had the unintended consequence of making women a less attractive prospect to employers."
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(BBC)
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