Or maybe when pay goes down, men leave the field because they need to make a higher income than women.

Who is putting this pressure on men to make more than women? I agree it’s nonsense that a man should feel emasculated when a woman makes more than them. To me it’s a societal issue and we need to evolve as a society (and as men) to not lose our shit if that’s the case.

Men don’t take time off to take care of babies.

This isn’t true. Some countries allow the government mandated parental leave to be split between the parents in some way. Sweden allows for 3 of the 16 months (I would prefer it be more up to the parents). Similar programs exist across Europe.

Canada grants 52 weeks of parental leave with the first 17 weeks being given to the mother, while the mother or father are able to split the remaining 35 weeks between them). This 35 weeks can also be used for adoptive parents and is the minimum. Some provinces offer more.

I think that, as a culture, we should definitely be encouraging fathers to take leave to be with their babies. There’s a lot of societal pressure that men shouldn’t take parental leave, but I feel most of that is antiquated especially as we erode the concept that the women’s role is in child rearing and men should not participate.