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Publié lundi 10 mars 2008 à 14h56
par
heisbo 
(vu 969 fois et 5 commentaires)
Last week Finnish Minister of Labour introduced a motion that parental leave should be divided in three: one part for mother, one part for father and one part to share however the family wants to. In Iceland they have already implemented this model. I have been demanding it to be implemented in Finland as well and therefore I've been forced to answer following questions. Aren't parents capable to decide what's best for their child and family? Is it really necessary that society gets involved in family life by telling parents how to share the parenthood? I think it is. Motherhood is unfortunately one of the main reasons for inequality on the labour market. That's why the change begins inside the family. If we are demanding equal pay, permanent contracts and equal pension, we need to demand shared parenthood.
Of course the Icelandic model is not the only way to reach the goal. In Sweden it has been introduced a model where family gets tax relieves if they decide to share the parental leave in half. One way is to share costs of parenthood between all employers. The question is not only about equality in the labour market, but also in families. Father should have an equal right to parenthood as mother has. I think it's a win-win situation if fathers would also stay home with their children. As a result we would have more equal labour market and more equality in the families.
I think PES should demand longer, more equally shared parental leaves for whole Europe. Attitudes are often very conservative when it comes to families. Aging Europe needs women to the labour market and that we can do with good childcare which is available for everyone.
We can also change old-fashioned ideas that women are better parents by making parental leave more reachable for fathers. The biggest obstacle on the way to equality is too often traditional attitude. Politicians need more courage to overcome this obstacle.
I think PSOE in Spain has showed us that it's worth taking a risk. PM Zapatero had a really brave and liberal equality policy and he was roughly criticised from the right side. People of Spain still supported his politics and showed that they are willing to change their attitudes. I hope similar kind of braveness could be shown in all European countries and PES member parties.
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Commentaires
1. Parental leave , child care facilities and a change in mentalities par avalon le lundi 10 mars 2008 à 17h00
Dear Hanna,
I couldn't agree more with your article. There is certainly a lot that governments can do to promote parental leave but in the end what we need is a change in mentalities. A lot of men still think of parenthood as a synonim of "maternal leave", a women's issue, etc.
On the other hand, it is also important to promote good child care facilities so both women and men can have their own careers. But once again, mentalities must change; when parents come home from their jobs, taking care of children should be a task for both men and women.
2. Yes, please par Asynjen
le mardi 11 mars 2008 à 10h07
Hi Hanna,
Oh yes, I'll join the choir and agree with you and Avalon! It's important for both genders to have a more equally distributed leave. Imagine what it does for women's careers to be out of the labour market for a full year (the length of the leave in my home country) - no wonder there's still a long way to go before we have equal pay. And fathers have a right to spend time with their children too.
3. Questions par Julian from Schaerbeek le mardi 11 mars 2008 à 15h06
Hanna's proposals sounds really good. But does it work in Iceland? Do men use their part of the parental leave?
And what is the current situation in the EU with parental leave? One parent can use the full entitlement without the other taking any?
Do we need a change in the EU parental leave directive?
4. Yes, the Icelandic men use their right! par Asynjen
le mardi 11 mars 2008 à 15h22
I can answer one of Julian's questions: a report from 2007 says around 90 percent of Icelandic men make use of their right to parental leave. They use in average 97 days whereas Icelandic women use an average of 180 days.
The report is in English and can be found here: http://kilden.forskningsradet.no/c16877/publikasjon/vis.html?tid=44715
The conclusions are interesting - it seems the law has also been good for fertility:
"It is therefore likely that more fathers than ever are active in the caring for young children. It is also indicated that the Act has leveled the status of men and women in the labor market in Iceland. Furthermore, fertility has increased in the wake of these changes and now stands at 2.1 children per woman."
5. Hanna Isbom: More courage in equality policy par jorn
le dimanche 13 avril 2008 à 23h08
A lot of decates ago it was naturally that mother alone took care of a newborn baby because she has been pragment, and she has - born it, haven´t she? In the meantime it was the fathers duty to take care of the family
When time has come for women to "enter" the labour market one could say that both mother and father must take good care of the baby. At the beginning we saw the day nursery, kintergarden etc.
But equality has started - very slowly. The Danish labour market has some rules for both the mother and the father. It is necessary to the family that they in common may be together with the new member of the family. Both the mother and the father has a responsibility. We are fighting for equality between man and woman, but it is almost impossible that to day men have a 3,4 weeks paternity (average) and women have about 42 weeks.
We have to breake down myths and bad practices. The social Democracy in Denmark have learnt from the Nordic countries that a socalled earmarked can give a longer matermity leave to the father. So it can bee in Demark, too. In connection with matermity leave it may be possible to postpone the matermity leave in case of child should be sick.
It is a duty for the society to help the parents and the new baby. A help visitor makes some visits to to the family to see its home, talk to the family if the parents have any problems, see how the child reacts om various things, and a lot of other things The new family has to visit there family doctor for some inoculation.
Now it can be concluded from my site a support can really be given to the family with a baby.
Jorn Olsen
Aarhus - Denmark
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