While campaigners have welcomed plans to extend maternity leave and pay and allow leave to be transferred between partners, they believe fathers will still lose out.
The proposals were contained in the Department of Trade and Industry's Work and Families: Choice and Flexibility consultation, which closed last week.
Charity Working Families said the proposals offered "little to fathers" and were based on the assumption mothers would be the primary carer.
It also called for increased paternity pay and longer paternity leave with strengthened rights to request flexible working.
Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), said the body was thrilled with the overall thrust of the proposals but added Britain was still "far behind other European countries". Changes that would make the system fairer included bringing in shared parental leave after the first six months, she said.
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