How can we expect to reduce inequality while sticking with an unequal playing field?
Okay, so today I want to talk about a topic that seriously frustrates me.
The insanity in demanding an equal, gender-balanced workforce in male-dominated industries such as IT, while being quietly okay with offering completely unequal terms for different genders.
More specifically — offering parental leave policies that by research is shown to significantly reduce the opportunities for the gender we want to see more of, and if anything slightly improve the opportunities for the other.
What does parental leave policies have to do with equality?
Globally, in some regions more than others, starting a family is today highly associated with negative consequences for your career. If you are the mother, that is. For fathers, research shows that starting a family has little to no impact on your career, and if any — it’s positive.
Why is that? Traditionally, and across the board, mothers take on a significantly larger chunk of the responsibility of having children when compared to their male counterpart, especially when it comes to parental leave. That, in turn has consequences on the mother’s career progression, opportunities for higher positions, income and in the long run — pension and savings.
Some of this imbalance is due to convention and norms. To a great extent however, it’s also upheld by unequal laws and regulations, making it in the best case difficult and in the worst impossible for the father to take an equal part of the responsibility.
Equal parental leave policies are today far from the norm
I come from a region in the world, Scandinavia, where we have generous parental leave policies that allow for mothers and fathers to share the leave equally. The parental leave period can be divided 50/50, or in any other ratio you choose. This is sadly an exception today. In most countries, and here we are talking anything from high-income to low-income across the globe — the parental leave offered for mothers compared to fathers is terribly skewed.
Take Sri Lanka as an example — the country where I have built the software development company Ascentic. Here, mothers working within the IT sector are by law eligible for about 4 months of parental leave, while the fathers are eligible for 1 day. Yes, 1 day.
And Sri Lanka is far from unique — to give a few examples…
UK
12 months for mothers vs 2 weeks for fathers
Australia
12 months for mothers vs 2 weeks for fathers
- Netherlands
4 months for mothers vs 5 weeks for fathers
In order to take an equal amount of parental leave as the father, or partner, you would first have to find a way around the structures blocking it. You would have to ask your employer for unpaid leave, or maybe even quit your job just to be able to take your share of the responsibility for your newborn.
How are we okay with this?
How can we say that we are working for equal terms in the workplace, for equal opportunities regardless of gender, and still offer so unequal terms when it comes to parental leave? How are we okay with mothers not having the right by law or policy to say “I need you to take your share of the load”?
In Ascentic, we as an employer decided to step out of the ordinary and are today offering 4 months of parental leave both for mothers and fathers.
As legislators are not rushing to fix these unequal structures, my view is that companies do have to step up and drive the change towards more equal terms in the playing field. It is a question of finances, yes, as the organisation has to bear the cost associated, but it’s also a question of whether we actually want to see the gender gaps decreasing, or whether we are okay with upholding inequalities of the past in the future.
Am I crazy here, or why is this question not top of the agenda in debates about how to fix the gender gap? Why are we okay with this situation?
Let me know 👇🏼
