Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave
Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave
Model babies attached to figures in London including Gene Kelly, Thierry Henry and Isambard Kingdom Brunel
A simple, inoffensive action that grabs attention but doesn't involve shouting into people's faces. Love it.
It's mad that it's not equal, if mothers and fathers have equal childcare leave there's no need to discriminate against hiring women full time (which is a thing that still happens, some companies don't like to take women in their mind 20s full time cos they end up taking maternity, I saw this happen first hand while I was in RBS, that was only 2 jobs/a few years ago)
I live in a country where parental leave doesn't discriminate between mothers and fathers (or one parent or another if it's a same sex couple). Parental leave can be up to two years BUT it's split into 75% for one parent, 25% for the other. I have yet to meet a man who has taken even a fraction of that 25% (aside from the paternal leave right after the baby is born, which is separate and covers a few weeks). This isn't to say it's an issue with men, but more an issue of a society that dissuades men from taking more than the bare minimum of parental leave, where women are still expected to take one the main caregiver role for children, and where men generally earn more than women. Until these issues are fixed and men are highly encouraged to take parental leave, just making that time available (even if a necessary first step) won't be enough.
Edit: got my percentages wrong
It's a weird position to take, if I was offered parental leave I'd take it all and probably wouldn't want to come back to work.
Fair enough if you live in a place where people actually like their jobs and want to be there, but that doesn't seem to be the case for the majority of us.
If they made paternity leave an equivalent length of time - and mandatory - then they could resolve a lot of the discrimination women face in the middle of their career when employers assume they will disappear on mat leave and withhold promotions.
That's a pretty awesome idea, I'm not going to lie!
I thought shared parental leave was a legal minimum? For the uninitiated, that's where some or all the maternity leave can be given to the paternal parent, meaning there isn't an inequality.
If they are campaigning for more for both parents, I'm not sure I am on the same page. I can see how this would make me unpopular though.
Imagine having the luxury of being able to complain that your paternity leave isn't long enough. Makes me, here in the US, glad I've got no intention of having kids.
You absolutely do have the luxury to do that. You just choose not to. Some other issue being "higher priority" doesnt prevent anyone from engaging with smaller issues.
U N I O N I Z E
You’re not the only one who’s glad you’re not having kids.
There are already way, way too many people on the planet. We shouldn't be forced to support someone else's family.
Those new people being born will end up funding your state pention. Unless your fine not having one
They'll also fund all infrastructure in the future, produce all goods and staff the nursing homes where these egotistical assholes will end up.
I'd rather have a functioning ecosystem and mitigated climate change.
Your logic is flawed. Even if we reduced births to 10% of current rates. Those children would need more parental support for longer. As that generation would be more dependent on parental and family bonding due to lack of a same aged community to learn and grow with.
We are a species evolved to have very, very dependent young, rather than most other mammals. This presented up with advantages in the predator / prey fight that is evolution. But it also left our young depended on tribal societies to survive.
Parental leave is just the modern capitalistic equivalent of the tribe coming together to raise its young. It is the recent historic lack of it in many societies and post-industrial revolution that is odd. Not the return.
You as a non parent will eventually need these children to learn to manage the society you live in. Just because you choose to be child free yourself. Does not mean you will not depend on them as adults as you age. As you age you will need educated doctors nurses and Bin men to ensure your life is liveable. Those adults are the very children you think are not your responsibility now.
But unless you are a hermit living entirely on the milk of your own land. (if so you are already not funding this).
Then yes, you and all of us are involved in raising the future population.
They weren't way too many people on the planet there's way too much holding resources, you monumental pillock
Unless you have a super duper magical way of changing how billions of people live, it's both.
Guess you won't be needing that state pension when you retire then...