France wants more fathers to take time off for their babies

On Friday, International Women's Day, Hollande, a never-married father of four, proposed legislation to encourage more men to take long-term paternity leave. The Socialist leader has made a point of promoting women's rights since his election last year, naming an equal rights minister and ensuring that women make up half of his Cabinet.

While most French mothers work, their salaries, pensions and career prospects can suffer from taking long maternity leave. Giving fathers more flexibility with parental leave could help make it easier for mothers to return to their jobs.

Hollande's proposal would allow fathers to take up to six months of paid leave after the birth of a child and extend other long-term parental leave benefits to fathers. Speaking at an equality conference Thursday night, the French president promised to get the idea written into a draft law by May.

French law currently allows fathers up to two weeks of paid paternity leave right after a baby is born. Mothers are allowed several weeks of maternity leave paid for by the employer.

Then, a parent can take further time off to take care of a child while receiving about €500 a month from the government family agency. With a first child, that parental leave is capped at six months; with two or more children, the leave can go up to three years. The family agency says just 3.5 percent of recipients of this parental leave subsidy are fathers.

Hollande's government is hoping to shrink the length of time the subsidy can go to mothers to encourage fathers to also put in for the leave. The legislation would also provide more state aid for single parents whose partners fail to pay child support.

The government is considering reducing the total amount of parental leave allowed from three years to two-and-a-half years, in order finance some extra six-month leaves for fathers — a move aimed at keeping costs down for a government struggling to trim spending.

The government also argues that the measure could keep women in the work force and theoretically boost the economy.

“You have to view this reform as part of a larger whole,” the minister for equal rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, told RTL radio Friday. The aim, she said, is to “make it so that the employee, whether female or male, can better reconcile their personal life and their professional life.”

French governments of left and right have long championed family-friendly policies, including public pre-schools and day care and child subsidies. That has helped keep women in the work force and the French birthrate steady — at about two children per woman — while other European countries have seen sharp declines in recent decades.

But France is still a society with a strong conservative strain and plenty of sexist attitudes despite a reputation for sexual freedoms.

French officialdom talked about little but women's rights Friday, with the prime minister signing an agreement to given women equal opportunities in public service, the defense ministry urging more “feminization” of the army, and Paris City Hall naming a dozen streets and squares after influential women.

SHARE CLOSE
Blogger		Google+
Live Journal		Plurk
Stumble Upon

Tweet

	PREVIOUS ARTICLE
	Indonesian women 'most assertive' in SE Asia

NEXT ARTICLE
South by Southwest film opener sees return of 'Incredible' Jim Carrey

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email

Submit