Just because a bloke has kids, doesn't mean he's not sexist or even gives a rat's about what women have to do.
My old boss was like this - he would sling off at me for every second I took off because of my kids, even though I was scrupulously careful to make sure he did not lose any of my time - I would make sure he got my extra time to compensate. My all-male co-workers didn't help, either. Their WIVES (who all stayed home to look after their kids, as good wives should) were the ones who were good mothers. The men would go home and be met by tidy, clean, quiet children who let daddy put his feet up and read the newspaper...
All I could do was make myself indispensable in other ways. I also arranged with husband to have equal time minding the kids - when we had a kid with an infectious disease, husband & I would schedule alternate days minding the kid at home. This was hard on both of us - HIS co-workers weren't too sympathetic, either.
We had a new directive that came in, all heads of department were sent a list of staff members who had taken absences over the past year that were more than five separate absences - did the department head think that this staff member should get a warning letter?
This was left to the department heads. My department head said, "Yes, send the letter to ALL my staff who qualify." So I got a letter. If I had taken en entire week, for example, when I had a medical certificate to cover it (and also had the sick leave to cover it) I would not have got the letter. When my child was sick and I took every second day while husband took the other days - this amounted to three separate absences in the one week. By coming in to work, I was getting my job done, but now I was being penalised. I talked to my department head, and then with his help talked to the personnel department head who had authorised the new directive.
Meanwhile in the department next door, a female technician had got the letter also, but her male colleagues had not. She knew the male colleagues often had Mondays off because they were hung over, and had more absences than she had. She talked to her department head - he told her that although she had provided medical certificates for each absence, they were marked as from the Women's Health Centre, which means that she was taking time off for "female troubles" and so was not entitled to consideration.
In other words, a hung-over male colleague could get a GP to write him a note saying he had a headache, and be allowed to get away with this, but the female who MAY or MAY NOT have had to see the doctor on female-related issues, was not considered to have a 'real' medical reason.
The working world is still very male-controlled and still very sexist. I found I did best when I played the game as a male, not as an outraged female. I would smile sweetly and ignore sexist comments, but I would quietly document it all and often be sexist back. A bloke calls me darling, I call him sweetiepie, in front of the other men. They got the message, fast. back off, hands off, she has claws. But we can't fire her, she's too good at her job.
Success is the best revenge.
My sister had a poster on the wall where she worked - I made one for my work space too (which I shared with men). It read, "A woman has to do twice as much as a man to be considered half as good. Fortunately, it's not difficult." My male co-workers objected but I told them I would only take it down when they could prove me wrong.
Marg