香港六合彩中特网

XClose

IOE - Faculty of Education and Society

Home
Menu

香港六合彩中特网 academics highlight what public policy can do to support working families

18 November 2021

香港六合彩中特网 Institute of Education (IOE) Professors Alison Koslowski and Margaret O鈥橞rien have contributed to a new open-access book 鈥楨ngaged Fatherhood for Men, Families and Gender Equality鈥.

Parents and two children standing together in kitchen. Image: August de Richelieu via Pexels

The book looks at how workplace norms, government policies, and healthcare systems still treat women as the 鈥榩rimary parent鈥, which can impact fathers, as well as family health, wellbeing and gender equality in the labour market.

The book is split into sections on health and wellbeing, social policy, and work and organisations. The first section examines the importance of fatherhood engagement for infant health, child development, maternal welfare, and men鈥檚 own health and adult development. The social policy section highlights aspects of family leave policies that increase fathers鈥 participation in infant caregiving, and the final section examines the experiences of fathers from a range of socio-economic perspectives, from white collar to blue collar to the precariously employed.

Professor Koslowski and Professor O鈥橞rien, new and former director of the IOE鈥檚 Thomas Coram Research Unit respectively, wrote a chapter on fathers and family leave policies and what public policy can do to support families. They provided recommendations for policymakers, highlighting the success of Iceland and Germany鈥檚 leave reforms, and stressing the importance of clear incentives to families for fathers to take leave, such as high-income salary replacement and the presence of an individual entitlement and a non-transferable component to paternal leave.

The academics also recommend that organisations should examine and challenge their gendered cultural practices around leave take up by fathers at all levels, and fathers themselves should begin to take their entitled leave. They note that this is particularly important as there is a growing evidence base that early father involvement matters for child development and couple wellbeing.

Professor Alison Koslowski said: 鈥淧arenting leave policies can increase fathers鈥 participation in infant caregiving, the cross-national comparative evidence shows us this, but they need to be designed in a particular way 鈥 individual entitlement is key.鈥

Professor Margaret O鈥橞rien added: 鈥淥ur research shows how vital basic statutory parenting leave is for UK working parents who have babies and young children. This new book highlights growing international evidence on the benefits of family leave for child and parental health but also working life. It brings together leading pediatricians, obstetricians and social policy makers.鈥

'Engaged Fatherhood for Men, Families and Gender Equality: Healthcare, Social Policy, and Work Perspectives' was published by Springer in September 2021.

Links

Image

Image: August de Richelieu via Pexels