Women should be paid for maternity leave

 I have always wondered how the female body can carry another human being for nine to almost 10 months and be given limited time to recover from giving birth. After giving birth, mothers should be compensated for their contributions to society. But we are not due to different maternity leave times. Most women will work up until a few days before childbirth. After giving birth, depending on where you work, and how long you work you can be paid for maternity leave until a certain point.  According to certain doctors, women need six to eight weeks to recover from childbirth, depending on the woman it can be longer. But for working women, this becomes an issue since they are guaranteed only twelve weeks of unpaid maternity leave. According to Caroline Criado-Perez the author of the book Invisible Women: Data Base in A World Designed for Men she states “ Over time, these pay gaps add up. In Germany, a woman who has given birth to one child can expect to earn up to $285,000 less by the time she's forty-five than a woman who has worked full full-time without interruption.” Why is it that we are punishing women who decided to start families? They do the same job and work the same amount, because, in my opinion, we should not punish women who decide to take an interruption from work. If women did not give birth, how would we populate the world? How would certain businesses make money? By not paying women for maternity we set them up for failure in the world. It costs a lot of money to support a family and children, although it is ultimately a personal choice for women I do not think we should treat them as if being a mother is not a full-time job. Especially in countries other than the US, there is a significant amount of women having less money than their male counterparts after retirement due to unpaid leave. Criado-Perez also says “There is no country in the world that offers properly paid leave for that length of time.” I agree with her because the system is set up so we are not paid for our labor, if someone else were to do the same jobs that mother does for another family that is not their own they would be compensated for it so why is that not the case for mothers who give birth.  Mothers should be paid the same amount as before while on maternity leave because they will eventually return to their workplace so why not pay them for their loyalty to their job as they support their families.