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Paternity leave makes sense as dad's role changes
By Wu Jiayin |
June 25, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
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AS Chinese men take more interest in their children's parenting and are more hands-on, it makes sense to grant them the legal right to paid paternity leave.
Some experts recently have raised the issue and called for men to get some time off when their child is born.
This is a time of changing assumptions about men's and women's roles in society and in the family.
At present, only women have the legal right to several months' paid maternity leave.
Admittedly, many provinces do offer paid time off for men, from a few days to a month.
But this leave for men is granted only by regional law, not national policy.
"It is not independent, and it doesn't really reflect gender equality in family responsibilities," said family issues researcher Liu Cheng at a seminar on paternity leave last week.
Liu is a researcher in the Women's Studies Center under the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
She suggested such rights be written into the national Social Insurance Law, which is still under formulation.
Paternity leave is not innovative: 36 countries, mostly in Europe, grant leave for both parents, said a report by Xinhua news agency last week.
However, in China, giving birth has traditionally been regarded as purely a women's matter. And women's entitlement to paid maternity leave is the major reason for gender bias in recruitments.
Employers don't want to lose an employee for a while and thereafter accommodate child-care issues.
However, "Women's capacity to bear children is not a drawback to their work. Rather, it's a kind of reproduction of the work force, and thus a contribution to society," said Li Huiying, director of the Women's Studies Center.
This concept should be recognized and popularized.
Granting new fathers paternity leave would serve as a first step and ease gender bias - to say nothing of the fact that it would allow fathers to participate more in taking care of babies.
The good news is that more and more Chinese men are recognizing their responsibilities and seek a greater nurturing role.
In a 2007 survey by the Women's Studies Center, 92 percent of the 840 respondents said men had a right to time off for the arrival of a baby. Only 2.5 percent said labor was purely a "women's matter."
The survey included government officials, staff at foreign-invested companies, workers from private companies and many other occupations from cities including Beijing, Xi'an and Nanjing. Among the respondents, 59 percent were male.
Still, the big problem remains: who will care for babies when the parents' leaves end?
It is common practice for grandparents to raise a baby until she or he is two or three years old and can enter nursery school.
Grandparents, however, are not obligated to raise the baby, and they cannot replace the vital role of both parents in a child's preschool education.
If there is wider recognition that both parents should rear their children, it follows there should be a legal right to paid paternity leave.
Some experts recently have raised the issue and called for men to get some time off when their child is born.
This is a time of changing assumptions about men's and women's roles in society and in the family.
At present, only women have the legal right to several months' paid maternity leave.
Admittedly, many provinces do offer paid time off for men, from a few days to a month.
But this leave for men is granted only by regional law, not national policy.
"It is not independent, and it doesn't really reflect gender equality in family responsibilities," said family issues researcher Liu Cheng at a seminar on paternity leave last week.
Liu is a researcher in the Women's Studies Center under the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
She suggested such rights be written into the national Social Insurance Law, which is still under formulation.
Paternity leave is not innovative: 36 countries, mostly in Europe, grant leave for both parents, said a report by Xinhua news agency last week.
However, in China, giving birth has traditionally been regarded as purely a women's matter. And women's entitlement to paid maternity leave is the major reason for gender bias in recruitments.
Employers don't want to lose an employee for a while and thereafter accommodate child-care issues.
However, "Women's capacity to bear children is not a drawback to their work. Rather, it's a kind of reproduction of the work force, and thus a contribution to society," said Li Huiying, director of the Women's Studies Center.
This concept should be recognized and popularized.
Granting new fathers paternity leave would serve as a first step and ease gender bias - to say nothing of the fact that it would allow fathers to participate more in taking care of babies.
The good news is that more and more Chinese men are recognizing their responsibilities and seek a greater nurturing role.
In a 2007 survey by the Women's Studies Center, 92 percent of the 840 respondents said men had a right to time off for the arrival of a baby. Only 2.5 percent said labor was purely a "women's matter."
The survey included government officials, staff at foreign-invested companies, workers from private companies and many other occupations from cities including Beijing, Xi'an and Nanjing. Among the respondents, 59 percent were male.
Still, the big problem remains: who will care for babies when the parents' leaves end?
It is common practice for grandparents to raise a baby until she or he is two or three years old and can enter nursery school.
Grandparents, however, are not obligated to raise the baby, and they cannot replace the vital role of both parents in a child's preschool education.
If there is wider recognition that both parents should rear their children, it follows there should be a legal right to paid paternity leave.
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