Childcare

CHILDCARE, A WOMEN’S ISSUE

The recent federal budget announcements reinforce the societal belief that caring for children is a mother’s responsibility, and that by improving childcare support, we’re helping women to remain in the paid workforce. While it’s a great start, BOTH parents need to be factored into receiving support to care for their children. We need more opportunities for men to stay at home and take a pause from the paid workforce.

Achieving more equal distribution of paid parental leave is the key to creating more equality in the workforce and in the home. It’s a workforce participation issue, rather than a women’s issue. If we can encourage more men to take the option of paid parental leave, we’ll see a fairer appreciation of childcare and the importance of access to childcare for both men and women.

Paid parental leave gives men an opportunity to bond with their kids at a formative age, but also helps them to strengthen ‘softer’ emotional intelligence skills such as social skills, empathy, self-awareness and managing emotions. All of these are essential skills to make them better leaders in the workplace.

Parents who share the care of their children in the first year are more likely to continue to share the care along the parenting adventure which is good for men, good for women, good for children and great for the family unit. When men start to take paid parental leave, they also start to appreciate the way parental leave can impact your confidence around returning to work. Encouraging men to take parental leave normalises the option of sharing parental care, and also gives more value to the importance of ALL caring roles in our society. We can’t create pathways for women into the paid workforce and leadership positions without concurrently creating pathways for men into caring roles. More equitable paid parental leave will result in greater awareness and appreciation for the role of caring and carers in our society and more opportunities for feminine leadership. We’ll also find women AND men in leadership roles with better self-awareness, empathy and self-regulation. The leaders the world so desperately needs.

So, what can organisations do?

Assess your paid parental leave policies, and actively encourage men in your workforce to take the option of parental leave. Normalise paid parental leave for men by encouraging it to be part of the conversation at every level of the organisation. Educate men in your organisation on the proven benefits of taking parental leave and spending formative time with their children. Recognise the potential benefits to your organisation of encouraging men to take parental leave, which will improve their leadership skills as a result.

By Danielle Dobson. Danielle is an author, speaker and corporate coach, on a mission to break the Gender Code. Find out more about Danielle and her book, Breaking the Gender Code, at www.codeconversations.com.au