I think lumping together all European countries like that is not really helpful: not many european countries have a median income one third of the american one,

I think lumping together all European countries like that is not really helpful: not many european countries have a median income one third of the american one, and some are even higher than the US one. wrt duration of maternity leave, western europe is pretty much at 3-6 months, while some of the eastern countries go longer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave)