Finland has recently announced plans to offer fathers the same parental leave as mothers from 2021. The country will be the first in the world to offer each parent seven months\u2019 leave. The minister of Health and Social Affairs, Aino-Kaisa Pekonen, said the aim of the reform was \u201cto improve gender equality and to boost a declining birth rate\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finland is one of many European countries improving paternity\nrights. Austria, Italy and the Netherlands, for example, have all recently\nincreased paid paternity leave or plan to do so soon. And the European Union\nhas also got in on the act, with new EU-wide rights to paid paternity leave\n(from day one) and to two months paid parental leave coming in under the\nWork-Life Balance Directive, which member states must implement by 2 August\n2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK is unlikely to implement the Work-Life Balance\nDirective. Having left the EU, it won\u2019t have to do so unless the government\nextends the transition period, which it has vowed not to do. But the UK\ngovernment has promised to make it easier for fathers to take paternity leave\nand to bring in a new right to carers\u2019 leave. And it is possible that it will\nchoose to bring UK law into line with the new EU rights in other ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current system in Finland only offers fathers just over\ntwo months leave and only one in four fathers takes it. Crucially, under the\nnew system, only half of the seven months of leave can be transferred to the\nother parent, meaning that more than three months of leave must be taken by the\nfather or will be lost. Single parents will have the right to use the parental\nleave quotas for both parents, meaning that they will be entitled to 14 months\nof parental leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous Finnish government had rejected the new scheme\nas too costly. The current government estimates that the changes will cost an\nextra \u20ac100 million. But there are two reasons to suggest that\nthis \u20ac100 million might be a worthwhile long-term investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, Finland is one of several European countries suffering\nfrom declining birth rates; the period from 2010 to 2018 saw a decline of\nnearly a quarter of new-borns in Finland. There is evidence to suggest that\nwomen in countries with a high employment rate give birth to more children and\nPekonen said other countries such as Sweden and Iceland had seen increases in\ntheir birth rates after offering more leave for fathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secondly, an increasingly even distribution of parental\nleave is seen as a long-term precursor to economic gender equality. A liberal\nmaternity policy matched with a short paternity policy can give the impression\nthat it is a woman\u2019s responsibility to look after her child and a father\u2019s\nresponsibility is to work. There is evidence to suggest, and indeed it is the\nhope of the Finnish government, that creating a fully matched policy will\ndisrupt if not extinguish this stereotype. A decrease in the gender pay gap\nbrings about inevitable benefits to an economy as workers, regardless of sex,\nwill remain in positions that they are most suited to. The results are clear in\nSweden where studies suggest that the more paternity leave men take, the more\nwomen make. A study in Sweden showed that each additional month of\nparental leave taken by the father increases the mother\u2019s earnings by\napproximately seven percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are also social benefits for the new-born child and for\nthose in the parental relationship. The Finnish minister, Pekonen, said,\nin the press release following the introduction of paternity leave, that it has\nbeen shown that a more equitable distribution of the domestic workload among\nparents decreases the risk of divorce. There is also evidence to suggest that a\nfather bonding with a child in the earlier years of the child\u2019s development has\na positive effect on the child\u2019s emotional wellbeing, intelligence, and self-esteem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With evidence of clear benefits for society, and increased\nmotivation in parents, it is no wonder that a few companies worldwide,\nincluding the Telegraph Group, Aviva and Diageo, are offering equal parental\nleave regardless of the legislation. However, when paternity leave is not a\nstatutory right, it may take a long time for cultural norms to catch up and fathers\nwho do take leave may be looked down upon by their peers and by senior\nmanagement. We might be seeing a shift in attitudes however as 85 percent of\nfathers surveyed across seven countries by Dove Men+Care indicated their willingness\nto be more involved with caring for their child. This has been further evidenced\nby the high uptake in paternity leave by employees at Aviva in the UK, with\nfathers on average taking 21 weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous UK government consulted last year about possible\nreforms to the system of family-related leave, and it remains to be seen\nwhether Boris Johnson\u2019s administration will make changes to the system of\nshared parental leave. Whether it does or not, it seems likely that a future UK\ngovernment will further improve paid leave rights for fathers and that\nemployers will continue to do so on a voluntary basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n