by Han-Son Lee, the founder of DaddiLife, a platform for modern day fatherhood, and a community of over 150,000 dads.
2020 has been quite the year so far. Whilst as a country we seem to never be too far away from another political crisis, there have been some great developments that show where the rest of the year, and perhaps further into the future, is going to take us. So it’s a good time to take stock of some of the more positive things starting to emerge when it comes to work and the ultimate goal of modern day thriving family.
Paternity Leave is one of the areas where the increase in focus has been notable in recent weeks. It’s hard to imagine, but the statutory paternity leave of 2 weeks was actually only introduced in 2003. But there have been rapid improvements in this area over the last year – with O2, Diageo, Aviva and many others all going some way to enhancing their parental leave. This trend is quickly growing further afield too - with countries such as Finland, recently announcing their intention to extend paternal leave and give the same amount of leave days for fathers as those of mothers. It will mean a lifestyle and work flexibility change on the fathers’ side.
This is far from an overnight success story though – it has taken place through the journey of a generation.
The Road to Extended Paternal Leave
For some time now, fathers in Finland had the right of getting 2.2 months after childbirth and before the child turned two while mothers had 4.2 months leave. The current government is working to reach 6.6 months for both parents. It means that the policy will not be either a maternal or paternal leave but rather a parental leave for both of the parents. Single parents would be allowed to take both forms of leave too.
Nordic countries have long been the pioneers of the parental leave policy, and other European countries like Portugal are also creating more of a gender-balanced system, where each parent has 120 paid off days with an additional option of 30 days with 80% of the salary. The European Union seems to be heading the same direction, given a recent directive for member countries to give each parent at least four months off with two months ‘untransferable.’
The first-ever country to adopt a father-friendly leave policy in line with becoming new parents was Norway in 1993. Sweden took on the same path immediately after followed Denmark in 1998. However, the father quota policy in Denmark was later abolished, and there has not been any news concerning a revisit of the same ever since.
While other nearby countries may be creating more advanced policy, we know that policy alone is rarely enough to create real change. So lets discuss 3 areas that I believe will need a significant change if the UK is to be a true bedrock for modern day thriving family:
1. Parental Support and reducing the stigma
For truly equal parental leave to work, both mother and father must feel a sense of parental need. It has been clear from research, like the Millennial Dad at Work that more and more modern dads are actively involved in day to day parenting. However, there are still far too many stories I hear of fathers who feel the stigma of taking parental leave.
We already have a problem that a substantial number of fathers in the UK (51%) are still not taking as many leave days at they are allowed. One of the core reasons being, they fear the perception it will give of them at work, and reduce prime work and promotion opportunities. This paternity paradox is one of the most significant barriers in adopting the extended paternal leave, and seeing more Dads take it up.
2. Flexible Working for Dads
Given that the parental leave days in Finland have also been extended until the child turns two, it’s yet a further provocation that fathers should be allowed to enjoy a flexible working environment within the child’s early months.
Some of the changes that will encourage flexible working for dads we have already seen with our research from last year showing that 1/3 of all the new dads we surveyed had left their jobs to find roles where they could balance their work and parental duties much better. It’s clear that with another 1/3 stated to be ‘actively looking’ that flexible working for dads soon won’t be a innovation, it’ll just be the expected norm.
3. Role Modeling
Sadly, there are a significant lack of leaders running their organisations who are role modelling the change needed. It still amazes me that in 2020, in a time where more and more dads are comfortable to be the ones carrying the changing bags on family days out, that there aren’t many more looking to drive an altogether more important sense of what ‘great’ looks like for a modern day family.
It takes bravery, and possibly the responsibility to re-orient a team or organisation, but more role models of enhanced leave, of flexible working, or even opening up the modern day dad conversation at work will go so far into creating cultures that are truly family fit for purpose in the next decade.
A final thought
It was one of Teresa May's final policies to have the paternal leave period extended from two weeks to six. While her premiership seems a long time ago now, perhaps like her ‘other’ deal (which looks remarkably like the one that was finalized by the other guy), perhaps we’re not so far off some real change in the future for dads at work after all.
Han-Son is the founder of DaddiLife and is responsible for day to day operations and strategy. With a background across brand development, research and strategy across a number of the world's leading brands, Han-Son personally led the research programmes into the modern day dad - The Dad Index and The Millennial Dad at Work, His work has been profiled in the likes of The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Huffington Post.