What is Paternity Leave?
Paternity leave entitlement has been the subject of controversy after a Nakuru surgeon petitioned the High Court to increase paternity leave to three months. Paternity leave is the duration of absence granted to a male employee after or shortly before the birth of their child. This article aims to demonstrate the importance of paternity leave and why increasing the period would be beneficial not only to the family but also the employer.
Paternity Leave in Kenya
Under the Employment Act 2007, paternity leave entitlement is two weeks. However, unlike maternity leave where a female employee can proceed on leave before birthing, one is entitled to paternity leave only when they welcome their child into this world. It is on this basis that the paternity leave entitlement was challenged; on the following grounds:
- Three months maternity leave period accorded to women is discriminatory and unfair to both genders. In his view, the fourteen days paternity leave disadvantaged women since employers opted to replace them or hire a male workforce because of the perception that women are unproductive for taking a longer leave period.
- The law assumes that a father has little to no role in a child’s development, yet no scientific, moral or societal evidence exists to support this.
- Denying a father the chance to bond with his child is the reason children often chose their mothers over their fathers.
Why Paternity Leave is Important
To understand why the paternity leave period should be increased, we need to understand why it is vital. Scientific research has been conducted and various suggestions have been made on the importance of granting paternity leave. They include:
- It gives a father the opportunity to rest, be a primary caregiver and bond with his child. As a result, he is able to experience and appreciate the unique role each parent plays and their unique challenges.
- It takes the pressure off new mothers as they get to take the much-needed rest required after childbirth. This saves them from the isolated environment they would have experienced in the absence of the support. As a result, chances of mothers getting post-partum depression reduces.
- Parental care and protection are a responsibility of both parents and not the preserve of the mother alone. Paternity leave therefore allows for equal distribution of parental responsibilities.
- Fathers play an equally important role in the emotional health and social development of an infant.
- Having hands-on fathers is another step towards gender equality as it helps reduce the burnout for working mothers, who often juggle both roles without much help from their partners.
- It creates a work–life balance for fathers. This improves their family stability since they are happier. It also increases their productivity as they are able to manage their time better.
Why More?
Though Kenya is amongst the countries that grant paid paternity leave, it is still miles behind since paternity leave remains at 2 weeks. From the attention and support the petition got, it is evident that there is a positive shift towards the increase of paternity leave period in Kenya. Increasing the paternity leave period is a step towards eradicating gender discrimination at the workplace and reducing wage loss for women and cases of employment termination on account of pregnancy. Corporations like Microsoft already paved the way in 2017 when it granted its male employees 6 weeks paternity leave entitlement. But is this enough?
Jurisdictions like Iceland afford their employees 6 months of parental leave (whether maternity or paternity), with 6 weeks transferrable between the parents. Gender neutralizing parental leave is a best practice which involves equalizing maternity and paternity leave entitlement. It has also been adopted by organizations like Diageo which equalized its parental leave to 26 weeks, to remove career progression barriers, create a happier, productive and loyal workforce thus encouraging talent acquisition and retention.
Parliament should amend the Employment Act 2007 and take a gender neutralization approach of parental leave that will see paternity leave and maternity leave equalized. This will address the issue of caring for an infant in the case of a maternal death since the father becomes the infant’s primary caregiver hence requiring more time to care for them in the early stages of their infancy. Having three months paid paternity leave will allow the father to care for their child without worrying about their job security.
Increasing the parental leave entitlement shouldn’t be the only step. A lot of focus and resources should be on engineering a cultural change that normalizes taking paternity leave. This is because fathers worry or feel embarrassed to take paternity leave or explore the flexible working arrangements, for fear that taking time off may negatively affect their family’s finances or deny them future career progression opportunities. They should also be educated on the effects of taking so much time off work to prepare them psychologically on what to expect. They ought to understand that they might get out of touch with their work flow rhythm for a while and it might take them a while before they finally get the hang of things.
Another key area of focus should be how paternity leave will be administered. Organizational policies should provide a guideline on who qualifies for paternity leave to avoid misuse by fathers who have neglected their parental responsibilities. Paternity leave should be a preserve of fathers who will be actual caregivers to their infants.
Conclusion
Paternity leave promotes gender equity and equality. Consequently, gender neutralization of parental leave is an innovative way of breaking down the cultural norms on gender, household responsibilities and work; leading to the attainment of SDG5.
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