Have maternity laws put fathers back decades?

I have been contemplating Sir Alan Sugars' comments over the weekend. As Managing Director of a Women's Development I wanted a response to the recent row about maternity leave for women.
On reflection, Sir Alan is right. Extending maternity leave will push discrimination underground and make employers think twice about employing women. However, extended maternity leave is simply a red herring. It's a typical shot gun approach from the 'family friendly politicians'. Surely family friendly is exactly that - FAMILY friendly.
As a bereaved parent (and I hope to be the parent to a living child one day) I have always believed that parenting is a shared responsibility and a shared right. Encouraging women to take more time off simply makes the gap between father and child bigger. For decades we were taught women should be at home with the children but men surely have the same rights too. Of course there are still the economic arguments to be debated but where there's a will there's a way.
At a time when the Government is blaming absent fathers for the ills of today's society - should they not be extending paternity rights with the same energy as maternity rights.
Spending time with our children in the formative stages is not only a right for mothers but for fathers too and the law should reflect, encourage and legislate for it.
As mothers it's not only our job to bring up the children because fathers can do it just as well and in some cases better!!
Rather than putting women back decades, extending maternity leave has put fathers back decades too.