Gender Equality Raises Maternal Burdens

In developed, gender‑egalitarian societies, having children can be associated with a higher risk of maternal depression, because modern nuclear living often leaves mothers isolated from the kin and community help that shaped ancestral maternal psychology. This mismatch — not just economics or rights — helps explain why many women publicly sympathize with a mother accused of filicide and why maternal mental‑health policy needs to focus on social support, not only clinical treatment. — If true, policy debates about gender equality, childcare, and mental health must account for social‑support infrastructure and not assume that formal equality alone mitigates parental harms.