Fellow Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said he did “not agree with Kemi on this one”.
Speaking at the Conservative party conference, Jenrick said: “I am a father of three young daughters – I want to see them get the support that they need when they enter the workplace.”
“Our maternity pay is among the lowest in the OECD. I think the Conservative Party should be firmly on the side of parents and working mums who are trying to get by.
“Nobody says it is easy having kids, why would we want to make it harder?”
Responding to Badenoch’s comments, Tom Tugendhat said: “I’m not going to tell people how to run their lives and how to share different caring responsibilities.”
Tugendhat, who is also running to be the next leader of the party, said: “I think maternity and paternity care are very important.
“One of the things I missed out on, years ago is we didn’t have the same rights on paternity care and I think many of us, fathers would have loved to spend more time with our kids.”
The fourth and final Tory leadership candidate, James Cleverly, also rejected Badenoch’s claims.
He said: “When it comes to working mothers the cost of childcare is too expensive.
“It was government meddling that made it expensive and rather tax and subsidies.
“Let’s make childcare cheaper so that mums who want to can go back to work and can afford to do so.”
