Bold policy changes needed
Lionel Wijesiri-Monday, March 25, 2019According to our age-old tradition, we are expected to treat motherhood with feelings of respect and veneration. Modern sociologists, however, believe that such deification of mothers not only has delegitimised the relationship fathers have with children, it also has diminished the immense worth and value of mother and father relationships.
Contemporary motherhood is viewed from a much broader perspective than in previous decades by emphasizing the relational and logistical work of childrearing. Mothering is now no more regarded as the exclusive domain of women. In most societies, however, women not only bear children but also are primary caretakers of infants and children.
Both parents getting involved
In recent years, a number of countries, both developed and developing, have taken steps to promote policies encouraging fathers to spend more time caring for young children, thereby promoting a more gender equal division of care work.
Researched evidence has shown fathers taking some time off work around childbirth are more likely to be involved in childcare related activities than fathers who do not take time off.
One of the steps these countries have taken was to introduce paternity leave and parental leave, on top of the normal maternity leave. This step has given both parents an opportunity to be more involved in their young children’s initial stages of lives.
Paternity leave is the period of absence from work granted to a father after or shortly before the birth of his child so that he can spend some time with his new baby. The leave is normally between 7 days to 90 days depending on the country.
Parental leave is a benefit that provides job-protected leave from employment to care for a child following its birth available to both mothers and fathers.
The entitlements vary around the world. In some countries, each parent is entitled to a certain set amount of leave. Others afford an individual parent the ability to transfer his or her allotted leave to the other parent.
In some countries, parental leave supplements maternity leave, paternity leave, or both. Elsewhere, parental leave replaces maternity leave, paternity leave, or both. Compensation during these periods varies greatly.
The Sri Lankan picture
In Sri Lanka, there is no provision in the law on paid or unpaid parental leave. Paternity leave of three days is limited only to the state sector.
This leave must be taken within three months from the date of birth of the child. Although the workers’ unions have requested that paternity leave should be established for the private sector too, nothing has happened to date.
The duration of maternity leave for mothers in Sri Lanka is 12 weeks (84 days) excluding holidays.
Of these, two weeks maternity leave is before confinement and 10 weeks following the day of confinement. State Sector employees, however, have special privileges in applying for “Half-pay Leave” and “No-pay Leave” in addition to the formal 84 days. It means they can choose to come after 7 months or 10 months if they decide to use those special privileges.
Our neighbours
Let us take a look at two neighbouring countries.
India – In 2017, the Government of India extended paid maternity leave for women employees from the original 12 weeks to 26 weeks. A maximum of eight weeks can be taken before the expected delivery date and the remaining after childbirth.
There is no provision on paternity leave in Indian labour law for private sector workers. On the other hand, a male public servant is granted paternity leave for a period of 15 days before or up to six months from the date of delivery of the child.
Pakistan - Female employees are entitled to a maximum of twelve weeks of maternity leave. Paternity leave for a new father is not provided under the labour legislation for the private sector. However, a male public servant can take paternity leave of a maximum of 10-days outside his leave account immediately on or after the birth of a child.
Both India and Pakistan, parental leave is not available. India is far superior to Sri Lanka in the maternity benefits and paternity leave. Pakistan is better than Sri Lanka in paternity leave.
Practicality
Coming back to Sri Lanka, there are also critics of paternity and parental leave. Some believe if the two privileges are introduced, there will be a huge impact on our economy and the question arises to what extent can our economy bear it. Some others maintain that Sri Lankan workers presently have lot of holidays and leave facilities compared to other countries, and whether burdening the system with more leave is justified at the moment.
One employer commented, “Our employees must learn to manage all their issues within present leave structure. I do not think any employee has missed out on supporting their family because we do not have such a leave policy.”
In spite of these adverse comments, the case for greater paternity and parental leave does prevail in Sri Lanka. For example, Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund says, “Positive and meaningful interaction with mothers and fathers from the very beginning helps shape children’s brain growth and development for life, making them healthier and happier, and increasing their ability to learn. It’s all of our responsibility to enable them to fill this role.”
Swedish experience
Since the introduction of the Swedish parental leave reform in 1974, fathers in that country have had the same rights to use parental leave as mothers. Between 2000 and 2003, a research project at the Department of Sociology, University of Gothenburg, focused on fathers who had taken more than four months of paid parental leave.
The approach of the study was mainly qualitative, based upon a combination of a survey and interviews.
A majority of the fathers who answered the questionnaire had been the main caregivers for their children during their parental leave. During the interviews many of the men described their mothers as role models for their fatherhood. The men also described their own partner as both anxious to get back to her work after her own parental leave period and convinced of the importance of a nurturing father.
An early decision to take part of the parental leave probably made it easier for the men to reach workplace agreements. Most of the men described themselves as both nurturing fathers and as sharing housework equally. They stressed the importance of being alone with their child during a long period, to be able to develop a deep relationship with their child.
Three reasons
In this Swedish ideological debate three main different reasons emerged urging fathers to take parental leave: (1) equality between men and women, (2) the child’s right to be with both parents and (3) the possibility of changing traditional gender stereotypes.
The equality point was focused on the need for equal employment opportunities for women. Equal distribution of different domestic tasks between women and men can also be seen as a goal in itself, but it is also a condition for reaching equality in the society as a whole.
The right of the child to have a close relationship with both the mother and father has been a central issue in family policy in Sweden since the 1970s.
The traditional view, regarding fathers as important role models for boys has been questioned, as research results show that fathers are also important in girls’ development.
The third central issue in the debate over the parental leave involved possibilities of changing traditional gender stereotypes. In Sweden, gender roles are fast changing at work and at home. Currently, the country is ranked as one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, with a strong national equality discourse and a relatively high number of men engaging in traditionally communal roles such as parenting and domestic tasks.
To succeed to this level, Sweden didn’t have a magic bullet. It was just a generations-long shift that required trial and error, and a commitment to gender equality from every man and woman in the country.
The brutal reckonings of our time have made clear that in Sri Lanka the current way isn’t working; if we can see that for what it is, there may be hope for us yet.
