Would renaming maternity leave as parental leave help change perceptions?

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My husband took "leave" in a different way which worked so well for us. I had a pretty rough mat leave tbh (which I knew would be my last) as our baby was born in 2020 at the peak of Covid so was pleased in a way to return to work after my year was up.
When I returned to work my husband requested if he could take one day off a week (unpaid, of course) so he could have a weekly Daddy Day with our daughter whilst I was at work. The only thing he couldn't do was breastfeed her - that was sorted as soon as I got home!
This arrangement continued until just before our daughter turned 2 - he had his day off for a full year.
We are by no means wealthy - not by any stretch of the imagination - so had to tighten our belts for that one day he wasn't working, but of course it meant no childcare costs on his day.
His employers were great to afford him that option and he embraced it.
It was absolutely one of the best decisions we ever made as a family. My husband would have jumped at the opportunity to have become a ft SAHD (whereas the choice to be a SAHM would definitely not be one I'd consider!)

We already have parental leave ... most underused leave ever!

As well as us already having parental leave, I think the difficulty with OPs proposal is it's not clear whether any use it or lose it for dads would be additional to current entitlements, rather than being taken from what women are already entitled to.

Probably 🙄

We need the workplace, qualifications, promotion etc to take account of women's unique role in reproduction. So, ability to defer qualifications whilst having children, counting rearing children and running a home as part of employment experience (because it is), part-time work (if desired) a right, fathers to have equivalent paternity leave which does not cut into the mother's leave, childcare time built into employment practice as it is in other countries, facilities for parents and children to encourage one parent to be at home for the formative early years e.g. like Sure Start (that the stupid Tories axed), the state to give support to children via a payment directly to mothers (family allowance, paid regardless of family income to all mothers for all children). Employers should remember that if women don't have children then their industry is down the pan in a generation because there will be no customers. Perhaps we should all emulate Lysistrata and persevere (Lysistrata and her colleagues gave in, very foolishly IMO, but the play was written by a man...). The world would fall down.

Running the home can be done equally by men and women (as it should be). And I assume you mean make part-time work a right for both men and women equally too?

I agree but moreover i'd stop saying WORKING MOTHERS... it's working PARENTS! I'm so sick of news and articles that say 'busy working mothers' as it just lumps all the responsibility with the mums.

It is the mother though? The one who gestate and birth children?

@PoppinjayPolly And how often do you hear the term "working fathers"?

There seem to be some who are determined to ignore the unique role of mothers in parenthood. Who seem to want to brush the fact that it is the mothers who are pregnant or that women’s bodies can take over a year to recover and settle into their ‘new normal’ following pregnancy. It is just another way to try and erase women.

@Borrowerdale Hence mat leave?

Quite. Maternity leave that starts when women are pregnant because women are pregnant.

I agree with this. I had HG for 5 months when pregnant, had an EMCS, which resulted in injury to me, and PND/PNA. Maternity leave was for ME to recover.

We probably need to distinguish between the leave needed around the birth of a baby (maternity leave) that allows the woman time to recover, and the use of “working mums” instead of “working parents”.

This phrase seems to me to apply equally to the years after maternity leave when children are growing up. And I agree that “working mums” puts the onus on women to also do everything in terms of combining work and children as they get older rather than assuming that fathers might also have caring responsibilities.

We already do - maternity leave and parental leave.

We already have ordinary parental leave and shared parental leave in the UK, and employees find it confusing enough. Let’s not create a 3rd type of parental leave, please!

We need more parental leave.

Maternity leave for mothers, at least six months to allow recovery from birth and exclusive breastfeeding. Then another one to two years of parental leave, shared between parents as they see fit, including a right to reduced hours, so babies can have one to one care from someone who loves them. Nurseries are not great for babies.

As a society, we should spend less on benefits for the old and people who don't work, and more on raising children.

Maternity leave for mothers, at least six months to allow recovery from birth and exclusive breastfeeding.

Still missing the fact that maternity leave starts in pregnancy - it even kicks in automatically from a month before your due date if you have to take sick leave. You can easily be on maternity leave for six weeks before the baby is borne.

Leave the word alone!

Maternity means the state of being a mother or the period of time during and immediately after pregnancy.

As a Noun: It refers to motherhood or the relationship between a mother and her child. It can also mean a hospital ward where babies are born (a maternity ward).

That is precisely why some people want to get rid of it.

They can’t erase this!

“All human life on the planet is born of woman. The one unifying, incontrovertible experience shared by all women and men is that months-long period we spent unfolding inside a woman's body."