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By: Madhumita Sharma
Women make up nearly half of the total labor force in several countries and spend nearly twice as much time on unpaid labor (like childcare and housework) than their male counterparts.
The trend towards longer parental leave is helping to address this inequality, but it’s worth noting that maternity leave still varies widely nationwide.
A new report from Unicef has examined family-related policies and take-up rates in the world’s wealthiest countries. The study looks at the amount of parental leave on full pay, as well as the provision of childcare services.
Surprising no one, the Nordic countries rank highest when all categories are considered.
In Norway and Sweden, almost all fathers take some parental leave, according to Anna Gromada of UNICEF’s Office of Research, but when it comes to parental leave, the top performer is Estonia, which provides the longest stretch of job-protected maternal leave (85 weeks at the full-rate equivalent).
In some places parental leave allowances may be generous but take-up rates remain low.
Japan offers 30 weeks of paid leave for fathers, by far the most of all the countries studied. Yet very few fathers (1 in 20 in 2017) actually use it.
In South Korea, which has the second longest period of paternity leave, men only made up 17% of all parents taking leaving in 2018, even after a national campaign encouraging them to do so.
British fathers also rarely take up shared parental leave. Some countries don’t even have much in the way of policy.
Switzerland is among the wealthy countries that don’t provide any father-specific leave. “We see no relationship between a country’s wealth and how it’s doing on family-friendly policies,”emphasized.
One of the keys to promoting better gender equality in the workplace is the provision of better parental leave for dads and mums. Maternity leave is offered in 184 economies with a median leave of 98 days, while paternity leave is available in 105 economies with a median of just five days.
Some countries are working to drive change and provide better balance for working parents. For example, last year the EU published a directive on Work-Life Balance for Parents and Caregivers and announced that all Member States would be required to offer a minimum of 10 days of paid paternity leave to all fathers by 2021.
This is a much-needed change, as currently there are no standards regarding paternity leave in the EU, and only around 10% of fathers in the EU use paternity leave.
“The use of work-life balance arrangements by fathers, such as leave or flexible working arrangements, has been shown to have a positive impact in reducing the relative amount of unpaid family work undertaken by women and leaving them more time for paid employment.”
The real outlier in terms of parental leave is the US. “The US is the only high-income country in the world that doesn’t offer even a single day of maternity leave,’’ says reports. Individual companies might provide some form of parental leave, but there are no statutory requirements. UNICEF recommends nations provide six months of statutory paid leave for parents.
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