Canada Ranks 20th in World in Gender Wage Equality

The World Economic Forum has released its annual study on gender equality, and Canada once again is ranked 20th.    Not surprisingly, the Scandinavian countries are once again at the top of the rankings, where the state and strong unions are very actively involved in regulating the economy and redistributed wealth.
Here is the Chart.
This Globe and Mail story discusses a new TD Bank study in which the gender wage gap is explained as mostly a function of women taking more time off work to have and raise children.  I have discussed a Statistics Canada study with similar findings before.
These studies find that the persistent wage gap between men and women is largely explained by the fact that women need time off to have children and then assume the greater role in raising the children.
If that is the case, do you think the state should intervene to “fix” this?  If so, how might it do that?    Should it try to address this issue through employment laws?  Human rights laws?  Tax laws?  Or, is the gender gap not a problem requiring any state intervention at all (it’s just the “free” market at work)?