I think also that not every job (particularly a lot of senior jobs) simply cannot be done part time, or reduced hours. Not everyone *wants* to work a 60+ hour week. And a lot of those jobs need that, plus travel, conferences, overseas trips, weekend work, and oodles of hours in the office.

Plenty of parents just don't want that. And that's a valid, understandable decision.

Some jobs can be done in shorter work hours, less days per week, partly from home, etc. And with those, it's good if the employee and the employer are able to come to a win-win arrangement.

But some jobs just can't be.
I totally agree with that. The job I left couldn't be done part time or from home.. In the industry, and office, I was in, there would've been plenty of work to do and coming from management, I knew most roles and was able to just jump in where needed. HO agreed to the part time hrs, and I had negotiated a lower hourly pay from the position I left, just the local office management wouldn't agree. In the end, their mistake was realised, but I had already moved on and in my mind had said I wasn't going back to the 'devil you know'.