Is he talking about us?

Sounds like it...

Adding to what Matt says, given the length of time of getting a degree, the culture of post-docs in the sciences, and the length of time to getting tenure, if a woman in academia wants to have a child she's going to have to do it somewhere in the middle of that. No matter how enlightened of a spouse you have the physical demands of pregnancy/childbirth/early care probably are going to largely take you out of the game for 6 months no matter how much you try to get back to work. The game is set up with expectations of uninterrupted attention to research. Having kids interrupts that, but the only other option is not having kids.

Guess we're all in the same boat. It's an amazingly frustrating thing most dual-academic household have to deal with. Most likely the solution would involve some sort of mutual agreement amongst numerous universities and colleges to allow for more flexibility. They seem to allow for that in other countries--I believe New Zealand has a year-long parental leave policy at its universities--and really that ought to be allowed here as well. It'd be pro-life, you know.