Karina Gould pauses to talk to reporters as she carries her three-month-old baby, Oliver Gerones, following a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Karina Gould’s parental leave is similar to that of many Canadians. Yet there are key differences, and they offer lessons on how parental leave could be redesigned to help more Canadian parents.
Too few Canadian fathers take parental leave. That’s because parental leave is framed as an employment policy rather than as care/work policy that promotes greater sharing of both paid and unpaid care work between parents.
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If more Canadian fathers are to harness the benefits of parental leave and remote work, we need to design employment and care policies in ways that recognize every family’s unique needs.
In the Japanese workplace, women face discrimination, restrictive behaviour and appearance codes and a lower glass ceiling than elsewhere. Only a profound cultural shift will change that.
Current parental leave schemes reinforce old gender stereotypes and the pay gap between women and men. Overseas experience shows better targeted leave for new fathers helps everyone.
Caring for a newborn can be joyous.
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If the plan is fully phased in as proposed, workers could get up to $4,000 a month for a total of 12 weeks in paid leave to care for a newborn, another loved one or themselves within 10 years.
Giving new dads ‘fathers-only’ leave is one way to support women’s equality.
Catherine Delahaye/Stone via Getty Images
Single mothers need more of a break than they get under current laws.
In this January 2019 photo, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser kisses her daughter after being sworn in. Will the coronavirus stop women’s careers from advancing or lead to societal changes that will make advancement easier?
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Whatever the eventual impact on women’s candidacies post-pandemic, COVID-19 has the potential to shock the system, upending or reinforcing existing gender imbalances in political power.
It is harder for stay-at-home moms to return to work than for stay-at-home dads.
Liderina/Shutterstock.com
Joe Denly, left, was hailed for taking time out to attend the birth of his child. Anthony Martial, right, was fined.
Mike Egerton/PA Wire/PA Images and EPA-EFE/Peter Powell
Thanks to a provincial insurance plan, Québec fathers are spending more time with their newborns, bringing about changes in the gender division of labour within the family.
Paternity leave can increase fathers’ involvement in families, with positive impacts on children, fathers and the co-parent.
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Darby Saxbe, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The transition to parenthood comes with plenty of stress. A psychology researcher suggests that paid family leave could help lift some of the burden – with positive health benefits down the road.
Professeure à l'Université TELUQ, Université du Québec, directrice de l'ARUC sur la gestion des âges et des temps sociaux et de la Chaire de recherche du Canada sur l'économie du savoir, Université TÉLUQ