Campaign launches for equal parental leave

A global fatherhood campaign has launched a campaign for equal parental leave for men and women.

MenCare launched a platform to lobby governments to adopt parental leave polices that are equal for men and women, non-transferable between parents and paid according to each parent’s salary.

They also called for leave to be a minimum of 16 weeks per parents and for jobs to be protected while parental leave is taken. They said the leave should be incentivised and inclusive of all kinds of workers and said it should be supported by high quality childcare and education.

The organisation said: “At MenCare, we believe that full equality will only be achieved when men take on 50% of the childcare and domestic work globally. Leave for fathers – in conjunction with leave for mothers and additional structural solutions – has the power to contribute significantly to the recognition and redistribution of care work and to transform deeply rooted inequalities between men and women.”

It would like to see equal parental leave policies enforced in national law and international agreements and available to diverse care givers.

The platform was launched at the United Nations in New York where MenCare were taking part in a Commission on the Status of Women’s event on “Sharing the Care” presented by the Permanent Mission of Iceland, the Government Offices of Sweden, UN Women, MenEngage and MenCare.

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