Whyisitsohard
Unfortunately, most airline Flight Ops Managers are still living in an era where they cannot get their head round maternity leave. When there are 101 outstanding projects which desperately need sorting and which need pilot input(sorting out manuals, performance data sim training scenarios planning etc), the best offer of ground job these morons can come up with is 9 months of photocopying and filing duties. Give them the right ground jobs to do and they could more than justify their salary.
Regarding the recent article about Female Space Shuttle Comanders in the Log. I wonder if NASA got them to do the photocopying when they were on maternity leave. Probalby not.