Your company’s stance on parental leave shows how committed it really is to gender equality
Those still offering just two weeks' paternity leave have a long way to go.
With our second child just weeks away from entering the world, the subject of parental leave is top of mind - namely how companies still offering a minimal amount of paternity leave - or, for that matter, significantly less paternity leave than maternity - can meaningfully say they are committed to diversity and equality.
Because as many thought leaders and campaign groups like Pregnant Then Screwed have articulated, achieving gender equality in the workplace boils down to two key things: offering flexible and remote working, and equalising parental leave. There are other helpful policies and factors, of course, but stripped down to basics, these are the two biggest components of the “motherhood penalty” that companies have the power to change.
You can read more in this article I wrote where experts and statistics concur that disparities in parental leave is one of the fundamental sources of the gender pay gap. And for proof on the positive impact of remote working on diversity and equality, for example, you can read the stats for yourself in this article I wrote recently. Meanwhile in this piece, Nicki Pritchard, managing partner at executive search consultancy Anderson Quigley, argues that for companies to do the most good, benefits should be updated or introduced specifically to address diversity, equality and inclusion (DE&I) issues.
I do understand there are limitations for small businesses in transitioning to equal parental leave as you’re talking double the budget when all of a sudden your whole team is eligible for this benefit instead of just half, or depending on the industry, a minority. But it does make me really angry when you hear companies, especially on International Women’s Day, shouting loudly about their women’s groups, panels and breakfasts they hold in the name of gender equality, then when you look beneath the surface, their maternity and paternity leave policies are miles apart, which speaks volumes to their values. Namely, that they expect women to be primary carers and men to be breadwinners, perpetuating the stereotype that keeps the gender pay gap alive. The Gender Pay Gap Bot on Twitter is a must-follow to fully comprehend just how hypocritical some companies are.
Photo by Alex Bodini on Unsplash
If you want to be truly committed to realising gender equality, cut the BS and put your money into things that prove you believe men and women should have equal opportunities at work, and not hang onto archaic policies that perpetuate the divide between men and women. Don’t tell me you can’t afford equal parental leave when your company is offering every single team member a four-figure stipend for people to spend as they wish. Don’t tell me the best you can come up with is offering a temporary four day week because you’ve heard the men in your company don’t like the idea of taking extended parental leave and won’t do it. Did you not get the memo from insurance company Zurich, whose offer of 16 weeks fully paid parental leave has been taken up by 63% of dads in the business?
Perhaps it’s the pregnancy hormones giving this post a more aggressive tone than usual, so I’d like to leave you on an inspiring rather than angry note, in the form of a Q&A with David Newns, an entrepreneur and investor who also happens to be a gay dad that took six months equal parental leave on the adoption of his son. David and his partner are brilliant role models in showing what equality can look like beyond gender, and how in this case, creating a more equal culture does start at the top.
Don’t forget to read beyond David’s Q&A for more from me on parental leave and stay tuned for hopefully a couple more editions of ‘Your Best Work Life’ before we become a family of four!
“As the business leader, I set the culture”: Q&A with David Newns, founding partner, Fearless Adventures
What has your journey as a gay dad been like, specifically when it has come to navigating paid parental leave? What observations do you have on the current system that is the norm eg enhanced maternity leave for women, brief paternity leave for men?
DN: When my husband Chris and I adopted Ryley in 2017, I took six months (equal) paternity leave - Chris also took six months’ leave from his own role. But as CEO in my own fast-growing company, I had to ask my CFO to step up to be the CEO for that period. That was quite a big decision to make really. We were trying to really build the business and there were some major milestones, but you have to trust someone else to kind of really step up and take the reins. It was a really tough decision to make, but he did a great job. I think anyone taking maternity or paternity leave has anxieties about what happens to either the business or their role when they’re off. Mine were that the CFO wasn’t the founder and that they might suddenly give a different sort of strategic direction to the business, or change the culture.
Tell me about the equal parental leave policy at Fearless Adventures. What does it entail and when did it come into place? Whose idea was it? What has uptake across men and women been like so far? Have any other same sex parents taken it?
DN: As a leadership team we agreed on that policy. It's not just me having an active role in the LGBT community, but our whole leadership group. But we're fairly new, and, though growing fast, we haven't had any parental leave requests yet! But by proactively promoting our policy and talking openly about it, when that time comes I hope we have high take-up rates.
What has been your role in promoting that all parents take it, not just women?
DN: Doing it by example. I’m a gay dad, so I have first hand experience of being in a minority group and taking equal paternity leave. And as the business leader, I set the culture. It’s so important to take the policy from a document and bring it to life, as that’s what makes it become culture.
Personally, I’m passionate about inclusivity, diversity and equality, including for parental leave. But as a leader, you simply can’t succeed by being neutral on the topic. And something every leader, and employee, can do is talk about it and make it a positive thing. When you’re in a minority group, positive leadership around those minority issues is super important. So it’s about cultivating allyship, and proactively communicating. That sort of simple, but highly visible approach makes people feel positively encouraged to live and breathe the policy, too. It fosters acceptance.
What are your overall thoughts on the progress around equal parental leave and its impact on both same sex and heterosexual families?
DN: Companies are policy progressive, right, but the question is: are they really open minded to it in practice? I think that's the phase we're in at the moment.
So all the documents say all the right stuff, but do the leaders embrace it or are they passive towards it? I think that's what they need to actively work on. And most of the time, it's not something they've even thought about proactively promoting. That can mean doing really simple stuff like just actively talking about it and encouraging people to embrace it. It can mean having baby changing units in male toilets, not just women’s in public spaces, things like that. Leaders need to go beyond the policy documentation and actively make this sort of equality happen. These might seem like little, fairly trivial things, but at a societal level they send big signals.
Business leaders are really open minded to equality policies. And I think more men are taking longer parental leave. But there’s still a case of culture lagging behind the legislation. Maybe there’s a stigma, perhaps employees feel that it will negatively affects their career, I don’t know. As leaders, we should be able to really encourage people to take advantage of equal leave policies, and foster open communication to address any issues with it. We’re entering a period of talent shortages, and these sorts of policies help to keep people balanced and engaged.
More from me on parental leave:
“How gay dads are raising the bar for paternity leave”: With paternity leave uptake dangerously low, a new generation of gay dads are rewriting the gendered narrative around parental leave.
“How offering paid parental leave from day one is boosting gender equality in the workplace”: More companies are scrapping minimum tenure requirements for benefits like parental leave, recognising how this can hold women back.
“‘Paid leave is too important to be relegated to a perk in talent wars’: Agencies aim to reshape shared parental leave policies”: Company policies to give parental leave for all genders are uncommon — but those that do exist are failing to make any real impact on gender equality in the workplace.
“‘Serious ramifications’: Why unshakeable gender stereotypes prevent men from taking paternity leave”: Recent data from Harris Poll and Volvo Car USA revealed that 62% of the 501 working U.S. fathers surveyed believe there is an unspoken rule that men shouldn’t take full paternity leave.
“How addressing the ‘motherhood penalty’ could solve the gender pay gap”: Evidence links the gender pay and seniority gap to the discrepancies between parental leave for men and women.