UK employers are getting ready for a major change in new parents’ rights. The parents of children born or adopted from April 2015 will be able to decide between themselves which of them takes time off work to look after the child. Mothers in the UK benefit from lengthy periods of maternity leave of up to a year, as well as pay for much of that period, unlike fathers who currently typically only take one or two weeks’ paid leave. The new system, called Shared Parental Leave, preserves those rights but in essence gives parents the choice of who takes the time off.
The UK has been accused of lagging behind other European countries in its approach to leave. Sweden for example has entitled parents to generous cross-gender shared leave for decades.
But will this herald a seismic shift in equality of the sexes? A recent forerunner of Shared Parental Leave, which enabled fathers to take significant periods of paternity leave, has fallen flat with a very low uptake. It remains to be seen whether Shared Parental Leave will be any more popular.