Nicola Brewer, the chief executive of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, claims employers were now thinking twice about employing, or promoting women.

Ms Brewer told The Times newspaper that laws meant to encourage parents to take equal responsibility for bringing up their children, actually worked against women, who society still regards as having the responsibility for bringing up children.

She said the new maternity laws worked against women because they unintentionally made them less employable.
She told the newspaper:

"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."