I called my sabbatical parental leave without a baby. Unsurprisingly, it was nothing like parental leave with a baby. In Canada on school days, between the hours of 9am and 3pm, my time was my own. I had nowhere I needed to be and nothing that I needed to do. That freedom felt every bit as luxurious as my younger-self on parental leave with a baby could have imagined.  

Routine liberation notwithstanding, there was one similarity between my experience of parental leave with a baby and without. I often found myself asking the same question: How do people all over the world do this? HOW? 

Learning the ropes with a newborn for the very first time is a singularly foreign experience that has never been better described than by Esther Walker when she said: “It’s like being asked to sit your A-Level exams. In Russian.”    

In Canada I had no newborns to tend to, and it wasn’t Russian I was trying to master, so why did I find myself flummoxed? Because raising children without a skerrick of a village is HARD. 

When we arrived in Toronto we really didn’t know anyone. We were properly on our own trying to find our feet and even with older children it was a gigantic undertaking. The ages of our daughters meant the travel itself – planes, trains, airports – was (save for the inevitable sibling warfare) civilised. 

There were no prams, nappy bags, naps or bottles to juggle. Our girls could carry their own bags, watch movies, read, cut up their own food and tolerate the travel without much hassle. 

But, taking older children out of their comfort zone and placing them into a whole new unfamiliar world presented challenges that younger children might not encounter. They felt the absence of family, their own friends, their regular activities and the familiarity of home keenly.

Being overseas, away from the comfort and anchor of home, very naturally increased the emotional support our girls needed, at the very same time our own options for support were dramatically reduced. We were without grandparents, siblings, friends, neighbours, our regular and beloved babysitters. We really were on our own. The cumulative pressure on the family unit brought an intensity to daily life in which the highs were higher, and the lows lower. It was alot. 

It reminded me – viscerally – that the adage about needing a village to raise a child isn’t hyperbole. It’s factual. 

Parenting is, easily, the hardest job in the world. The patience, resilience, optimism and strength it requires, daily, cannot be downplayed. 

I maintain that there is nothing as physically relentless as having babies and toddlers; the 0-to-5 window is peculiarly demanding in ways too many fail to readily acknowledge and appreciate. If you are a parent with children under 5, I see you and I promise life will not always feel like a marathon no one really knows you’re trying to complete every day. 

I promise you that fast forward five years you will find yourself inexplicably longing for the opportunity to go back in time for just one more day with those sweet, funny, wild bundles of need. This does not mean you should be soaking up every minute right now. You just can’t. It is a chapter of survival that is filled with affection and joy and boredom and exhaustion and love. Enjoying the moments you do enjoy, however fleeting, is enough. 

I am no longer in that chapter and as a family we are now able to explore and enjoy life in ways that were utterly unfathomable when our girls were younger. But parenting remains the hardest job in the world. 

I have done some hard things in my life but nothing challenges me in the way that parenting does. One reason, I believe, parenting can feel so difficult is that so much of the trickiest terrain is invisible. As children grow older their privacy really matters and their highs and lows aren’t ours, as parents, to share. 

This can create the false notion that raising children is more straightforward than it really is. That belies the conversations I have with parents every single week. Conversations in which the full extent of parenting – in all of its grit and glory – is clear.

From managing illness or a diagnosis, to tricky sibling dynamics, to social exclusion and loneliness, to intense dysregulation, to school refusal, disordered eating, anxiety, relationship breakdowns: the list of specific triggers is endless but the result is the same. Families struggling behind closed doors. 

Parents spending hours and hours of time trying to work out what support looks like for their child or family. Tears. Angst. Heartache. Desperation. From professional intervention, to quick fixes: whether the challenge is health, social, educational, behavioural – there are parents out there hunting down answers to problems many don’t know they’re facing. 

My stint on parental leave without a baby taught me once again that parenting is the biggest, most-consuming job in the whole wide world for which there is no formal training. 

It is why The Parenthood exists; not just to lobby for positive policy changes like better paid parental leave and access to quality early education, to ensure parents and carers and children are supported, but to ensure that the reality of parenting and caring is recognised and validated. By leaders, employers, government, decision-makers but also? By us! 

It is the biggest, toughest, most important job that we all need to acknowledge and validate as such. So, if you are a parent or a carer you have permission to recognise the work you do every day.    

The post What I learned on parental leave without a baby  appeared first on Women's Agenda.

According to the results of one country following such a change, it absolutely can. 

Taiwan amended legislation in 2021 to increase the rate of paid parental leave for parents from 60 per cent of their insured salary to 80 per cent, applied to previously available six months of leave. Other legislated changes included the addition of flexibility, with parents able to take off a month or more at a time, rather than having to take the full six months in one go. 

The changes resulted in an immediate uptick of fathers taking leave, at 25.2 per cent of “married parents” who took leave in 2022, rising from 18.2 per cent the year before. That result saw a total of 25,100 fathers taking leave in 2022. 

The changes came via amendments to the Employment Insurance Act in July 2021, and during the second term of Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-Wen, specifically aimed at promoting “gender-friendly workplaces” and encouraging more men to take part in housework and care. 

The results were revealed in a paper released by Taiwan this week, 2024 Gender at a Glance in the ROC, and comes just months after Taiwan was ranked the highest in Asia and sixth globally across the 179 countries listed on the OECD Development Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index. Taiwan trails the well-known leaders on gender equality, including Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden, but comes in ahead of Australia, the United States and the UK. Last year was the first time Taiwan appeared on this Index. 

Taiwan boasts other impressive results according to this week’s government paper, including having 41.6 per cent of its legislature being made up of women at January’s election, although this is slightly down from the 42.5 per cent achieved following its latest 2022 legislative by-election. 

Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage in May 2019, with more than 7000 men and almost 18,000 women registering for such marriages by the end of 2023. 

Taiwan also introduced anti-sexual harassment laws in 2023, following a number of sexual assault claims against celebrities and other powerful figures, including within the Democratic Progressive Party, that sparked a number of resignations. The new laws saw an expansion of workplaces covered to now include those with at least 10 employees, as well as an extension on the statute of limitations. All employers covered must establish channels for sexual harassment reporting, and must then investigate all sexual harassment complaints and report findings to local authorities or face the consequence of fines.  

Taiwan has been led by its first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, for the past eight years, who has been credited with leading the country successfully through the pandemic and promoting a strong Taiwanese identity separate from China. Her successor, William Lai Ching-te, was successfully elected at the presidential and legislative elections earlier this month. The president-elect has been Tsai Ing-wen’s VP since 2020 and will officially become president in May 2023.

The post This country just saw a record number of fathers taking parental leave appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The Dads Action Plan for the Early Years is a national strategy that hopes to support fathers in taking an equal share of parenting, addressing the fundamental role of fathers in parenting and the challenges they may face, such as harmful stereotyping and inadequate specific male-parent support. 

Among many recommendations, it is recommending 12 weeks of federally-funded paid parental leave for fathers and non-birthing parents, doubling the current leave reserved for non-birthing parents to four weeks and introduce concurrent leave.

The group behind the initiative, including comedian and podcaster Hamish Blake, Bluey voice actor David McCormack, Australia’s Local Hero of 2023 Amar Singh, and Red Wiggle Simon Pryce — hope to change the landscape for working fathers. 

Blake, who hosts the popular podcast, How Other Dads Dad, said the current generation of fathers yearn to be more engaged with their children, but do not always know where and how to get support. 

“Something like this helps make that more possible for more dads, and I reckon that’s a massive, long-term good thing for everyone involved,” he told AAP. 

“Becoming a dad can be a pretty overwhelming time for a lot of guys, and in my experience this generation of dads really want to be more engaged, but perhaps don’t always know where and how to get support. Something like this helps make that more possible for more dads, and I reckon that’s a massive long term Good Thing for everyone involved.”

Amar Singh with his family

Blake, who was crowned Australian Father of the Year in 2023, has made it his mission on his podcast to encourage men to talk openly about parenting, fatherhood and “how to be a good dad” — interviewing other celebrity dads on his show, including Australian Test Cricket Captain, singer songwriter Ben Lee, comedian Dave Hughes, and former Socceroo captain, Craig Foster. 

Amar Singh, founder of Turbans 4 Australia, told APP, “It’s good for family values to have both parents there and with the flexibility to take care of the kids, be around them more, nourish them and create that bond.”

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The Dads Action Plan for the Early Years has laid out a five-point action plan, making a series of recommendations, including more affordable and accessible childhood education, better education and support to fathers to be active and caring parents, and a significant boost in male early educators.

Several organisations across the country have already pledged their allegiance to the national strategy, including Playgroup Victoria, The Parenthood and Dads Group, an organisation that promotes positive parenting for men.

Jay Weatherill, director of the Minderoo Foundation, and the director of the campaign said the plan is “as much about changing social norms as it is about money as well.”

In a statement released this morning, Weatherill explained that “For too long access to childcare and kindergarten has been seen mostly as a women’s issue, but this does not reflect the reality of modern families.”

“Dads know that early childhood education is good for their kids – they want them to have the opportunities it provides for their social, cognitive and emotional development, and the lifelong benefits that come with that,” he said.

“On top of that, modern dads want to take a more active and engaged role in parenting but government and employer policies and services have not caught up with that change.”

“So I am really pleased to see these fellow dads coming forward today to call on politicians to do everything they can to make sure children are set up to thrive.”

Georgie Dent, CEO of The Parenthood, believes that encouraging men to be active fathers is not just beneficial for dads, but crucial for children. 

“It’s a step closer to achieving true equality between women and men,” she said. “There are clear benefits from supporting and encouraging men to be engaged, active fathers and take on responsibility for the care and well-being of their young children.”

“It’s good for dads, really important for children, great for families and helps bring women and men closer to true equality.” 

“Dads in Australia take less than 20 per cent of the parental leave dads take globally. This isn’t because Dads here aren’t interested in taking the leave. It’s because our policy settings don’t encourage it. An equitable paid parental leave policy is a game-changer for mums, dads, and children. It gives parents the ability to truly share the care.” 

“This perpetuates the expectation that mothers will assume primary responsibility for caregiving. We need a shift in societal norms, where fathers are encouraged and supported to be active caregivers.” 

Currently in Australia each year, roughly 180,000 families receive government-funded paid parental leave. 

The post Hamish Blake, Amar Singh join campaign to push for better parental leave for dads appeared first on Women's Agenda.

“I remember years ago at a place I worked at, a man was taking two weeks parental leave and the boss said, ‘oh, do you need to take some time off to breastfeed?” 

Speaking to The Project, she recalled hearing the comment and immediately knowing it would have a “lasting impact” while also saying a lot about the workplace’s culture. 

Does such stigma prevail in 2023 Australian workplaces? Not everywhere, but definitely in some places. 

The latest data on men taking leave shows just how significant the issue is. 

Overall, 2023 has been a game-changing year for paid parental leave in Australia, with the Albanese Government’s extended Commonwealth funded scheme coming into effect in June, as well as another jump in the proportion of employers offering gender-neutral paid parental leave that is free from limiting ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ carer labels. 

The latest data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency released at the end of November and based on more than 5000 employers with 100 or more employees, highlights where paid parental leave access is improving, and where employers are seeing the value of supporting more diverse experiences of parenting and caring. 

But the data also provides some hints about how stigma and entrenched workplace cultures might be holding men back from taking leave. 

Of the employers that do offer paid parental leave, there was a nine per cent increase in 2022-23 in workplaces offering gender-neutral and label-free leave, or “universal paid parental leave” as WGEA refers to it. WGEA described this as a “hopeful” sign that employers are starting to understand the importance of removing carer labels. 

But WGEA also found that male-dominated industries were still far less likely to offer universal leave than female-dominated industries, meaning many male workers are missing out in areas like Manufacturing and Transport, Postal and Warehousing.  

Meanwhile, the proportion of employers offering some form of paid parental leave in addition to the government-funded leave hardly budged in the reporting period, rising just one percentage point from 62 to 63 per cent in 2022-23. 

Yet, even where paid parental leave is being offered and made more accessible, men are still not taking much of it. 

Overall, men accounted for just 14 per cent of all paid primary carer’s parental leave taken, just a tiny increase of 0.6 per cent. This is despite a growing number of men having the option to take leave funded by their employers. As WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge said on this gap in men being offered but not taking paid parental leave, having good and well-intentioned policies are just the start. “The real hard work comes in changing the culture and the environment, addressing any stigma or underlying stereotypes that inhibit those policies being taken up and put into place.”

Unfortunately, the trend in men taking government-funded paid parental leave also isn’t encouraging. New government figures recently released show the scheme was accessed by 170,200 women in 2022, compared with just 1,020 men. The data shows that 87,895 men accessed the two-week “dad and partner pay”, which has since been removed for the reformed scheme, compared to 745 women. 

Also limiting men and an overall shift in access to PPL are continued vast divides in who has access to PPL, with the WGEA data showing employees can not only be limited by their gender and carer status, but also limited by the size of the business they happen to work for. 

Almost nine in ten (87 per cent) of businesses in the 5000 plus employee range are offering paid primary carers or universally available parental leave, compared with just 57 per cent in the 100 to 246 employee range, and a total figure across all sized employees of 63 per cent. 

Although we don’t have WGEA data on business with less than 100 team members, we know that startups and small businesses can struggle to offer paid parental leave, given concerns about resourcing such policies.

There are also concerns that employers are seeing the government scheme as “enough” for new parents, which goes against expectations from the prime minister earlier this year that employers should step up to complement the system. Forty five per cent of those employers that don’t offer PPL say it’s because the “government scheme is sufficient”. But it’s not. Australia still has one of the least generous paid parental leave schemes when compared to most other OECD nations with an average of over 52 weeks leave on offer.

The uptake of paid parental leave for men is a critical component for shifting entrenched social expectations and creating a stronger environment of shared care. Men need to see role models taking parental leave and role models again highlighting what it means to “share the care”: working flexibly, part time, being open and proud about taking time out for kids. 

So, when men can access the leave, what’s stopping them from doing so? 

First up, there’s the gender pay gap, and the fact men are so often in higher-paid positions. The WGEA data uncovered a 21.7 per cent total remuneration gender pay gap. Men are also still far more likely to be in senior leadership roles, accounting for 78 per cent of CEOs, 59 per cent of senior management positions. 

But there is also the workplace stigma, social norms and entrenched gender stereotypes standing in the way of men taking paid parental leave and even going on to work in part time and flexible positions.  The reality is men need to feel it’s ‘safe’ to take parental leave and many don’t. Fearful that their role, status or performance review will be negatively impacted if they take leave.

Labels matter. While the Federal Government recently rescinded the reference to primary and secondary carer provisions when PPL changes were introduced from July this year, many employer PPL policies still make employees distinguish between being a primary or secondary carer. This has a knock-on effect on how leave and caring duties will be split and shared at home and often, inadvertently, pigeon-hole women as primary carers, and men as having ‘less’ caring responsibilities at home.

There is the fact that men in smaller businesses are less likely to have access to any kind of employer-paid parental leave — an issue that also impacts women, but could put the onus on women to take more unpaid leave regardless of what sized business she works in. 

And there is the entrenched history and expectations we continue to carry regarding who does the care work, despite such expectations coming in sharp contrast to the dramatic increase in women’s workforce participation. 

Many advocates agree on the need for men to be better supported to take parental leave as one of the most important levers government and workplaces have to improve gender equality outcomes, while also benefiting the health and development of children.  Parents At Work has released its latest white paper outlining how employers can adopt a gender neural PPL scheme and is calling on workplaces to benchmark their PPL policy against best practices standards to champion greater Family Friendly Workplaces.

Employers can help change this starting with benchmarking their parental leave policies and practices against The National Work + Family Standards. There is also a business case guide for employers on Advancing Shared Care in Australia through Paid Parental Leave which highlights how employers can contribute to changing how we approach parental leave in Australia.

The post Men are increasingly offered paid parental leave so why are they not taking it?  appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Those of us in the small business community thought that was pretty good. Finally, universal paid parental leave. Excellent!

Then the government said Centrelink would not pay the eligible people directly but would send the money to the employer, who would then have to pay the employee, by putting the money into their bank account via each pay run.

We thought that was pretty stupid. Nobody unnecessarily includes a third party in a payment process. Nobody who understands business does that. 

Basically, Centrelink would approve the eligibility of the person, then send that person’s funds to the business, and then the business would give those funds, through a pay run, to the eligible person.

We complained about the extra unnecessary red tape, but were told it would “only take five minutes”. In small business, when we are told something will only take five minutes we know to ring our partners and tell them to put our dinners in the oven because we will be late. It doesn’t matter whether you are a worker or a business person, five minutes is never five minutes.

We explained this process would create problems for a small business person, particularly with managing inputs to their ‘chart of accounts’ and entering information through the accounting and payroll software. 

The public servants, and I’m pretty sure the minister at the time, didn’t know what a ‘chart of accounts’ was and had definitely never used one. It is an integral part of a business and if you get it wrong there will be a lot of confusion and mistakes – ask any accountant.

To assist in understanding, we then explained the PPL payment is not a grant or income from sales or a loan. So just what is it? For the purposes of bringing the funds into the business through the chart of accounts, it must be listed as ‘Other (PPL)’. But how would you take it out at the other end?

For the pay run, we pointed out a person would have to manually process that pay or it would cause mistakes to be made with the Business Activity Statement (BAS) and the end-of-year tax payment summaries (the old group certificates) as well as with superannuation, leave accrual and other leave.  

It was suggested by the minister’s office that a simple Q&A be provided via a website that would help a small business person complete the pay run. We explained to no avail that was not possible as there are many different types of software and different formats of charts of accounts. We also pointed out that once you need a Q&A, it means the process isn’t simple.

​The Paid Parental Leave ‘Employer Toolkit’

So, we assume under direct pressure from the Minister, the public servants came up with a so-called ‘PPL Employer Toolkit’. For a process that would ‘only take five minutes’ we ended up with an instruction that is 50 pages long, with the last four pages consisting of HTML and XML code that a small business person can use in their software. 

That’s right – the small business person is supposed to hack into the software and replace the code that currently exists with the suggested code.

It’s not just crazy but also illegal and irresponsible. A government agency is telling small business people to break the law and hack into proprietary software (somehow or other) to satisfy a plainly stupid idea. How would the small business owner hack into an online accounting program, even if they wanted to? Would they get arrested if they actually tried?

The solution is simple: pay the money directly from Centrelink to the eligible person. Tell them it’s tax-free, don’t bother mentioning it on their tax return. All good.  

You can see the PPL Employer Toolkit HERE.

This article was first published by Smart Company. Read the original article here.

The post The government’s paid parental leave system encourages small businesses to break the law appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Our third daughter was one of those mythical creatures I dared not speak of at the time lest I jinx it – she was a baby who fed and slept happily from the moment she arrived. I came home from four days in hospital after giving birth feeling rested. I kid you not. 

Having had two babies already we were free to accept our infant’s delicious temperament and proclivity for sleep in those early weeks for what it was: a stroke of luck that we knew could change at any time. Yes, we were comfortable and more confident parents but also? She was an insanely contented baby. Our older daughters were 3 and 5 and while life was chaotic our family cup runneth over.  

I didn’t work at all for the first seven months after she was born. I started back editing and writing for Women’s Agenda two mornings a week which I did from the comfort of home or a nearby cafe that became my office. 

Over that first year of life as a family of five there were hiccups. While our baby slept dreamily at home, any night spent away from home was invariably an all-nighter for the whole family. My husband was working hard to land a position on a competitive surgical training program and wasn’t eligible for any parental leave beyond the first two weeks. 

Towards the end of the first year, with the pregnancy hormones well and truly wearing off, I had a health flare up that led to chronic pain. 

But before those thorns grew, my period of parental leave, during which time my energy and focus and efforts skewed easily – and happily – towards parenting was a delight. 

Which is why I’m quite beside myself about what’s coming next. I’m calling it parental leave without a baby… an opportunity to just immerse myself in my family at a time that’s needed. At the end of June I’m stepping away as CEO of The Parenthood for six months and I am handing the reins to the remarkable Jessica Rudd. 

The context for the transition is this. My husband has been offered a fellowship in Canada for the second half of the year and it’s an opportunity we have decided to embrace as a family and relocate for six months. Initially I toyed with the idea of attempting to work remotely from North America while we’re away. I couldn’t be more delighted to say that, with the support of the board and our partners, sanity prevailed. 

With the momentum around early childhood education and care and paid parental leave The Parenthood cannot afford not to have a strong presence here on the ground. And Jessica Rudd couldn’t be more perfect for that role and responsibility. 

As The Parenthood’s Chair and Patron, Wendy McCarthy, says: 

“We are delighted to have appointed Jessica Rudd to continue to advance The Parenthood’s effective and impactful advocacy at this critical point in time. Jessica’s skills and professional experience in law, communications, media and business make her eminently qualified to lead and thrive in this role.” 

Being able to juggle work, family and life is no joke. Virtually every conversation Jess and I have had since this appointment was made has centred around the same theme: the insane game of tetris that is trying to align the full gamut of raising little people with the reality of work.

The policy changes we champion at The Parenthood are about making that game of tetris simpler. We don’t campaign for better access to quality early childhood education and care  or extended paid parental leave or family-friendly workplace practices because we want mums and dads tethered to work at all times. To the contrary. The suite of policy reforms we advocate are designed to give parents greater flexibility and opportunity to be there for their children and be able to financially provide for their family. 

I am incredibly grateful and excited that after three huge years leading The Parenthood, I am now able to take a breather and embrace my family. I’ve led an organisation that wants to normalise the reality of combining family life with work and it’s wonderful to have had the temporary change in my family life supported and accommodated. At The Parenthood we know it’s possible to do things differently: to be flexible and adaptable so that parents don’t have to make an either or choice about work and care. 

The flexibility and support I’ve been offered will enable me to enjoy a unique experience with my family: setting up a temporary life in a foreign country, with three children to settle into new schools, and explore a new city. It’s six months that our family will remember forever. The time will fly and with Jess at the helm so will The Parenthood.

The post Georgie Dent: I’m taking parental leave but without a baby appeared first on Women's Agenda.

And, most of us can agree, these all sound very good on paper. Some small businesses may even be in a position to offer these incentives. But, for many of us, we don’t have the cashflow — or the resources — to be able to offer them. 

The question is: Is this what it takes to support parents in your business?

The answer is, not necessarily.

Having a baby is a big deal, whether you’re having your first child or another, whether you’re the one carrying the child or not. Any transition brings with it an increased risk to mental health, and the transition to working parent is no exception. 

One of the biggest ways you can support expectant and new parents in your business is to build a culture that puts their wellbeing front and centre. Best of all? It doesn’t cost a cent!

So, where do you start?

Put simply, we recommend breaking it down into three essential steps:

1. Plan — before the baby arrives.
2. Connect — during parental leave or after the baby arrives.
3. Set up –or the return to work.

Let’s look at it step-by-step.

Plan

Before the baby arrives, your team member might be feeling a little uncertain, worried about what this means for their job security, and even what the changes might mean for your business.    

Planning can help alleviate some of this uncertainty, thereby supporting wellbeing. 

For a parent taking parental leave, there are two important things to do during this phase: create a Handover Plan and agree on a Keeping in Touch Plan. These two simple steps can help an employee feel valued and in control. It’s also a nice way to acknowledge that you’re looking forward to their return to work and that they won’t be forgotten. 

If your team member isn’t going on parental leave, it’s still important to lay some groundwork. This means starting conversations about flexibility and what support they might need to manage their family and work commitments, such as how they are supporting their partner, any childcare logistics, and whether they intend to take parental leave later in the baby’s first year. Chances are they’re already thinking about it, and addressing this early may alleviate some stress for them. 

Connect

In this phase, be thoughtful about how often you get in touch, and when you do. Remember, not all employees are going to want to maintain a connection after they’ve had their baby, but it is really important to do so if they wish.  

This is where you utilise the Keeping in Touch Plan. You should both have already given thought to how often you’ll connect if your employee is taking time away from work. Now that the baby is here, it’s time to implement it (and if you didn’t discuss it before their leave, it’s not too late to do that now!).

By making time to connect with your employee you’re — again — demonstrating that they’re valued. It’s also a good way to keep them connected with your business and any changes they need to be aware of. It goes a long way to making them feel like part of the team for their return. 

If they choose not to be contacted during leave, it’s important to respect that. Keep in mind you will still need to get in touch as their return-to-work date approaches. 

Set up

Returning to work as a new parent is a unique experience, no matter how much time you’ve had off. You walk into — often — what was a familiar environment, a completely different person. As a manager, making time to set things up for your team member in those early weeks can go a long way to unpicking that feeling of disorientation. 

First, confirm all return dates and discuss the role they are returning to. What’s changed, and what do they need to know in order to settle back into the role — e.g. new clients, new processes, new systems?  

Next, map out their activities for Week 1 back at work, and make sure someone is there to greet them when they arrive on the first day. Check that their IT access is up to date, and that they have security passes, passwords, or keys if needed. If possible, make time to catch up in person to welcome them back.  

Even if your employee had little to no time off, it’s still important to check in at this point. Their life has changed. In all likelihood, their needs will have too. 

Keep checking in regularly over the first year back. And keep in mind that it’s always good to have trial periods for any new arrangements, such as flexible working arrangements — this leaves the door open as both of you see what works and what needs tweaking.   

For expectant small business owners

If you’re a small business owner expecting, the above needs to be adapted to suit your needs. For you, delegation and support may become more of a focus. Think about how you’re going to get the support you need to manage your business and the needs of a newborn. Even though it can be hard to think about sharing the load, preparing yourself early will help you set yourself up for success. 

Want more?

Thanks to funding from the Federal Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care, and feedback from other small business owners, we’re piloting a digital platform for small businesses, the Parent Well. 

We’ll help answer questions like, “What are my legal obligations?”, “How do I ask about breastfeeding needs?”, “What should I say if my employee experiences a miscarriage?”, “How can I create a culture of support?”, “How do I tell my staff I’m pregnant?” and “What is a Keeping in Touch Plan, and where do I get one?”. 

We also have a Planner tool to notify you when it’s time to check in with your team member, what you should cover, and the resources you need to support them at this time.

The Parent Well is currently in the pilot phase. We’re welcoming as much input from people in small businesses as we can get. Like what you see? Please tell us. Looking for something different? Let us know that too. Ultimately, this is something we’re building for you. Help us shape it by registering now and offering your feedback.

This article was first published by SmartCompany.

The post How small businesses can support new and expectant parents in three simple ways appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The study, “Father’s Leave Reduces Sexist Attitudes”, appears in the American Political Science Review and was conducted by researchers from Rice University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich. 

Researchers examined the attitudes of 1,362 new parents in relation to how they were affected by a policy reform in Estonia that tripled the amount of fathers’ leave time for babies born on or after July 1, 2020.

Their aim was to explore how providing parental leave only for non-traditional caregivers (fathers) impacts individuals’ attitudes about stereotypical gender roles.

“By offering a benefit that can be accessed only through the choice of a nontraditional caring role by men, fathers’ leave directly challenges mothers and fathers to conceive of their social roles in less stereotypical ways,” said researchers. 

The results showed that families with fathers who received more parental leave saw an increase in belief in gender equality among both men and women.

This policy reform in Estonia also increased support among women for pro-female policies such as requiring the promotion of female candidates at the expense of male candidates, which the study notes called for further research.

“While both groups respond to the change in social roles promoted by the fathers’ leave reform by expressing more gender equal attitudes, support for positive action to bring it about rises only among women,” researchers said. 

“Disrupting traditional gender roles may not be sufficient to increase men’s support for positive action. This could be because of differences in the perceived cost: after all, positive action implies the promotion of women at the expense of men.”

Nevertheless, the study’s findings seem to suggest that social policy has the power to reduce ingrained attitudinal biases, and the study is the first to show causal evidence that direct exposure to fathers’ leave reduces sexist attitudes. 

“These findings are particularly timely as governments around the world continue to reform their parental leave policies,” said researchers. 

“The implications of our findings also extend beyond fathers’ leave. The intervention that we study amounts to a disruption of traditional gender roles. Its sizable effect implies that other policy interventions that broaden gender roles may also move attitudes in a more gender-equitable direction.”

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A massive 8 in 10 respondents to a recent survey conducted by professional accounting body CPA Australia indicated they thought superannuation should be paid on government paid parental leave.

1444 people were asked the question: “Do you think super should be paid on parental leave?”, with 80 per cent indicating their support.

CPA Australia spokesperson Dr Jane Rennie said there is clear community support for paying superannuation on parental leave and it would help close the gender super gap that leaves so many women worse off in retirement.

“A CPA Australia survey of about 1500 people found 80 per cent of respondents want the federal government to make this change,” Dr Rennie said.

“Australians are paid superannuation on sick leave and annual leave. There is no reason parents shouldn’t be paid super on parental leave. Paying super on parental leave is well worth it.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australian women would benefit.”

A recent report from AustralianSuper confirmed women in Australia tend to retire with about 42 per cent less super than men, concluding that the retirement system doesn’t recognise the unpaid caring work women do throughout their lives.

Dr Rennie says time out of the paid workforce raising children contributes to the gender super gap and women’s financial insecurity in retirement.

“Mothers are overwhelmingly more likely to take time off to look after their new children than fathers,” she said.

“The Retirement Income Review investigated paying superannuation on parental leave and found it would help reduce the gap between men and women’s super balances. It’s well-established that paying super on parental leave will help improve gender equity.”

“Regardless of gender, no parent should be left behind simply because they take parental leave.”

CPA Australia previously pushed the Morrison government to revisit its decision not to pay superannuation on government paid parental leave.

The new Albanese government has not confirmed whether it will introduce the reform, saying it will consider it only after an audit of the previous government’s spending had been completed. Before the election, Anthony Albanese left the door open to the policy, but would not commit.

Stephen Jones, the new financial services minister, said the government wants to be able to introduce superannuation on paid parental leave, but it was too early to make a decision on whether it can be done in the first term of government.

“I want to see it happen, I do, that’s not a promise that we will. It’s all contingent on us being able to get the budget numbers right,”  Jones told Nine papers.

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Ruby.  

For 5 years, Ruby has been nanny to our kids and a personal assistant to me. She brings order to chaos. She’s a champion multitasker. Ruby’s like a second mum to our kids. (Some days it feels like she’s a second mum to me.)  

The truth is, there is no way I could do what I do – as a CEO, mum or spouse – without her. 

Celebrities and social media influencers make it look like they’re doing it all by themselves. (Think Kim Kardashian lecturing women to ‘get your f*cking ass up and work’.) The reality is most have a small army of people behind them. Running interference. Organizing travel. Picking up their kids. Managing their schedules. 

They don’t do any of it alone. They couldn’t. 

Neither can I. 

It’s time we recognise the notion of women ‘doing it all on our own’ for what it is. A myth. An impossible fiction – damaging to women’s identities and demeaning to our value.

The myth of ‘doing it all’ says that I’m worth less if I need help juggling my career and family. If I struggle to keep up, the myth of ‘doing it all’ says I should choose one: career or home – and it should probably be home. 

The myth of ‘doing it all’ also erases the people who help us get it done. When I asked Ruby if it was ok to share this story, she mentioned that often people don’t take her work seriously. They see it as somehow secondary, of lesser importance. Nothing could be further from the truth. There’s no way for me to measure the impact Ruby has on our lives. I could not do what I do for a living. My agency, ntegrity, could not have the impact we have apart from her.

But of course, I’m immensely privileged to be able to hire someone like Ruby. This option is inaccessible to most women – which is why businesses like mine and governments like ours need to step up.  

If we want more women to be able to juggle parenthood and careers, then we need more workplaces with pro-parent policies. That’s why ntegrity offers paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender. My partner Kyle (who’s also the agency’s Creative Director) and I took advantage of this policy to support each other after the birth of our second child. Kyle kept the business thriving while I took my maternity leave. Then when I was ready to come back as CEO, Kyle made the most of our inclusive parental leave policy – and took over as ‘house manager’. 

But paid parental leave and flexible working is only a start. Under current law, I can’t give my staff a parental support allowance, to help them hire someone like Ruby, without it being taxed as a fringe benefit – at a whopping 47%. There is nothing fringe about the need for parental support.

I can’t do it all alone. Neither can you. The thing is, we shouldn’t have to. 

Removing the Fringe Benefit Tax on parental support wouldn’t cost our government a thing. I’m not asking for a handout or tax relief; I’m asking for the opportunity to provide a benefit to help working parents thrive without being excessively penalised.  

If other employers were to get on board, together we could boost Australia’s GDP by increasing women’s participation in the workforce – both as professionals working for companies like mine and as professional caregivers working in homes like mine.  It’s time we all do our part – individuals, businesses and governments – to give women the support they deserve, so they can balance their lives in the ways that work for them

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Most new Australian mothers receive government paid parental leave to support health, encourage workforce participation and balance work and family life equally with their partners. Despite this, Australia still has one of the least generous parental leave schemes in the developed world.

Both major parties propose to improve the paid parental leave scheme this election.

If you plan on having children, it’s worthwhile understanding what each party promises. Their policies may impact your health, income and the opportunity to pursue your career differently.

What are the major parties promising?

The Australian government provides working parents with paid leave at the minimum wage for up to 18 weeks. This scheme was introduced by Labor in 2011 and represented a “giant leap” in social policy, but it came quite late by OECD standards.

It has since been adjusted to provide partners with two weeks of leave and increase leave-taking flexibility.

This election, the Coalition promises to “enhance” the scheme, although it will keep the total leave amount shared between parents unchanged at 20 weeks. It will also leave payments fixed at the minimum wage.

Instead, the Coalition will allow parents to completely share this leave flexibly between them as they choose, with no separate amounts earmarked for mothers or “dads and partners”.

The Coalition will fix a design flaw in the income test by connecting scheme eligibility to household income, rather than individual income. It will also increase the income threshold that cuts off access at $350,000, allowing 2,200 more families to access the scheme.

Labor has a more generous plan. It promises to increase total leave from 20 to 26 weeks to be shared between parents. It also seeks to pay benefits at a person’s full salary.

Labor aims to fund their proposed scheme from employer and government contributions. But their plan is scant on details, including how much this policy would cost, what proportion would be funded by business and government, and whether each parent will have leave earmarked for them.

A group that would be better off under either plan is single parents. They would be able to access more leave than the current 18 weeks available to them (Labor’s plan increases leave and the Coalition’s collapses leave for partners into the total leave entitlement).

Leave-taking, gender equality and scheme fairness

Take-up of the current scheme is low

The argument is that if households want to maximise their income, lower paid parents (on average, mothers) would be the ones taking the entire 20 weeks’ leave, since it will be paid at the minimum wage. This means the Coalition’s plan may work against “promoting equality between men and women” in work and family life, despite offering more flexibility.

Labor’s plan better promotes equal leave-taking, since it will pay either parent taking leave their full salary.

Parental leave schemes in other countries offering higher salary replacement are funded by a combination of government, employer and employee contributions.

The Australian scheme already works together with employer-paid leave as 60% of Australian employers also offer paid leave.

This arrangement creates differences in leave-taking between parents who can also use employer-paid leave and those without this privilege. This is inequitable and may translate to differences in mothers’ health outcomes.

Labor has not clarified the details of their proposed government/employer-funded approach. More details are needed on how their scheme would interact with existing employer-paid parental leave policies and whether it would help address existing inequities.

Effects on health

Labor’s plan better supports parent and child health (particularly for those without any employer-paid leave). Research has found six months’ leave after birth for mothers is optimal for their mental health, a minimum amount also suggested by the World Health Organisation for promoting breastfeeding and infant health.

Labor will get Australia’s scheme closer to this benchmark.

When fathers take leave, this is associated with better health outcomes for both mothers and fathers. It also supports children’s development.

The Coalition’s plan doesn’t increase leave from the currently low entitlement. It also only allows mothers to take more leave at the expense of fathers (and vice versa), which may compromise health.

Women’s workforce participation

Any changes to parental leave need to balance health promotion and gender equality with supporting women’s workforce participation.

Overly short leave increases the risk of women exiting the labour force, while overly long leave (more than one year) can result in women losing valuable skills and weaken workforce attachment. (Although neither party’s plan is anywhere near generous enough to create this issue).

The current scheme includes six weeks’ paid leave that can be used flexibly between parents any time over the first two years after birth, including while working part-time. This feature potentially supports skill retention and employment attachment, and is probably what the Coalition had in mind when proposing complete flexibility in leave-taking.

Future changes needed to support Australian women

Labor’s plan provides a health-promoting boost to leave, while the Coalition’s recognises the value of flexibility in supporting women’s work. Both plans are lacking in execution; Labor’s on details and the Coalition’s on policy design that promotes equality in leave-taking and caring.

Both parties should consider providing longer and equally split leave for each parent with an additional “flexible” component, or rewarding “bonus” leave to parents who share leave more equally.

Australia has one of the most highly educated and skilled working age female workforces in the OECD. Sadly, this still isn’t reflected in women’s workforce participation, with women more likely than men to work part-time, be under-represented in most industries and earn less.

Policy design matters, but broader changes are needed to draw on this “productivity gold”. This includes promoting high-quality flexible work and normalising fathers taking extended leave to care for children.

Anam Bilgrami, Research Fellow, Macquarie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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For me, it was an experience with sexual harassment early in my working life that has shaped my leadership more than two decades later.

I was in my early 20s when another teacher sexually harassed me. It was significant enough for me to lodge a formal complaint to the principal of the school. The principal encouraged me to drop the complaint, reminded me that I was on contract (code for did not have to be renewed) and recommended I be more circumspect in what I wore.

This was the late ‘90s. I secured a job at another school but, like so many others, I became disillusioned with the profession I had my heart set on from a young girl and I simply left.

I went back to university, completed a Masters degree and retrained. By the time I reached my thirties I had started a family and was working in the Victorian Public Service as a policy advisor. As a mother of two young boys, I found it challenging to find roles offering growth and opportunity that were not full time. When I asked for more flexibility, I was often denied or actively discouraged from applying for roles as they would not accommodate flexible work hours.

My experiences are no different and would be less intense than those experienced by others. I cannot begin to fully understand the pain and disadvantage that intersectionality creates for many people – compounding factors of race, disability, age, socio-economic background.

My hope is that other young women don’t need to have these types of experiences with sexual harassment and discrimination, to be driven to bring about change. It is up to today’s workplace leaders to make sure that happens.

I am proud that at Bass Coast Shire Council in Victoria, my team is helping lead true change that will have immediate and lasting impact on the gender equality of both women and men living in our beautiful region.

We have been the first Council to pay 12 months paid superannuation to mothers following the birth of a child. This ground-breaking policy has benefited both men and women at Council and is known across the sector as the “Bass Coast Clause”.

Another big change we introduced in October was providing 16 weeks paid parental leave to both men and women following the birth or adoption of a child. This has has already been taken up by three male employees.

By paying the same amount of parental leave to both men and women, we have removed the financial reason often faced by families when determining who should stay home and who should return to work. This helps women have choice and continue their careers with less disruption if they so choose.

Two of our outdoor crew have recently become dads for the first time. They were both emotional when they found out they would be financially supported to take 16 weeks parental leave and have that time to bond with his new daughter without the worry of having no, or reduced, income.

Our workplace policy is that flexibility (days, location, hours) is “as of right”. We are an outcomes-focussed organisation and don’t base performance on the amount of hours worked or when the work is done. Since making this change, a number of our people have expressed gratitude in having this progressive policy. Just the other day, one new employee told me she is far more likely to contribute over and above than her last place of employment because she wants to give back to the organisation that invests, and places trust, in her. We are also seeing more applicants for positions as we becoming known as “employer of choice”. This is so important as for many sectors not just local government as the competition to attract and retain qualified and talented people has become fierce.

We also undertake Bystander Awareness Training, where we address gender inequality as the underlying cause of men’s violence towards women. This is provided in partnership with other major employers across Bass Coast including Phillip Island Nature Parks, Westernport Water and Bass Coast Health.

Other key actions that seem obvious BUT which have flown under the radar with the absence of conversation include providing bathrooms for female team members out on site and looking at uniforms/trade clothes for women because, until recently, clothes have been designed for, and by, men.

As part of the 16 Days of Activism in November/December our Infrastructure Maintenance Leadership team, along with our General Manager Resilient Communities, held a focus group with female team members. The feedback shared in regards to the culture was overwhelmingly positive. The focus group felt that they’re treated equally, and are supported by all team members. They feel safe at work and have not experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.

Our changes are being noticed and we are now attracting more women into traditionally male-dominated roles. Over the past few months we have increased women in our outdoor work depot from two to nine, including the appointment of two female apprentices this month.

We have declared to sporting organisers that if they seek to use Council property to stage their events they must award equal prize money in male and female competitions. The Australian MotoX Championships was the first to partner with us to introduce this important change.

As Chief Executive Officer of a Council in Victoria, I have an opportunity, and responsibility, to address systemic gender inequality through policy change, programs, service delivery and advocacy. I am delighted other Councils and public sector agencies are following our lead. Together, we can make a real difference.

We often hear the statistic that gender equality will not be achieved for at least another 100 years. As leaders we don’t have to make that prediction a reality. Let’s be the change we are all wanting by taking action where we can.

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