Not to get too far off track, but I think it really becomes part of, and an extension of, an ideology that those responsible for managing family life, home life and the emotional culture of that home were, by default, women.
Inadvertently or due to not thinking it through, I think our policies take that for granted in terms of how the departments think about the roles of women in families. It's a no-brainer because nobody wants to acknowledge how much we actually take for granted.