Would renaming maternity leave as parental leave help change perceptions?

[classicslove]

I've never posted on this board but something has just got me thinking about the way maternity leave is perceived in the UK.
Surely one way to change this is to rename it as Parental Leave more in line with the Swedish system with a set amount of time for the mother to recover and the rest split between both parents.
Details are not as simple as this but surely while it is still called Maternity it is assumed that it is solely the females responsibility in the thought process of the general public and in particular men and employers, whatever the law actually says.

Takes from women to give to men, as pp says.

The father's body isn't trying to recover, his hormones aren't going mad, he isn't suffering the after effects a woman goes through post birth. The sole reason to erase and disguise and shuffle women off into the shadows is to benefit men.

The issue is not what is called.

Its that rightly or wrongly, many women see the "old" entitlement as theirs, not something to be shared.
And they want paternity to leave to be in addition to this.

I’m not sure I get it? I took maternity leave and shared parental leave. My husband took paternity leave and shared parental leave.

We called it maternity/paternity leave when we were doing that, and then parental leave when we took that. That’s the way it was set up in our HR systems.

Having someone to support you when you are recovering is brilliant, we really need to encourage more fathers to take paternity and parental leave.

In a perfect world, women would have maternity leave for the two years minimum of breastfeeding. Then fathers would have paternity leave until children are ready for reception.

I fear by renaming it as parental leave a woman in a vulnerable relationship could end up being forced back to work far too early so that her abusive partner can stay home.

by changing the name , changes the expectations and puts some women in an even more vulnerable position.

when a man can push a 8lb 13 oz baby out of his penis then he can have the same equal rights as us women when it comes to leave after a a baby is born.

That's why I used the word 'sad'. Very often the biggest leaps forward come from small steps not from entrenched ideals. Changing attitudes takes time, patience and critical thinking not knee jerk demands that simply fuel the opposing entrenched views of others.

IMO asking women to budge over and make yet more room isn't how to fix inequality.

When we were 30ish, my female friends and I were frequently asked in job interviews if we were planning to get pregnant any time soon (this happened in a Northern European country). When this question came up, we always knew we would not be hired. This practice was illegal, but it was impossible to prove that it had happened. Based on those experiences, I think this may be one of the rare cases in which a term associated with women may actually contribute to discrimination against them.

No. The mother who has just given birth needs the right to maternity leave. Call all the other leaves to do with new babies ‘parental leave’. The father, the other mother in a lesbian relationship, either or both adopting parents, should be the ones who get ‘parental leave’. If the system allows the mother who gave birth to share her maternity leave with her partner, it should not change the nature of her leave.

Maternity is an exclusively female experience. The word ‘maternity’ is, always has been, and always must be clearly and securely associated with women.

The mother who gave birth has to take the first two weeks off as maternity leave to recover, than you can opt to share the remaining time as parental leave.

Women!! Stop your entrenched thinking that giving birth is a female activity you selfish horrors!! Is it @classicslove ?

What you describe seem much closer to the Swedish practice, but I didnt think many UK employees provided this.

So interesting to know that it can happen.

So I dont think renaming it Parental leave is the option, and quite honestly doubt many men would think about.

But as I said up thread, there should be 3 parts.

But none of it will happen until men change their attitudes.

And businesses are willing to be more flexible.

I wonder if you chose to be a single mother you could claim all Paternal Leave?

Still don't see how it's sad? Like it or not, giving birth (and breastfeeding) are exclusively female activities and maternity leave should be protected for women.

People aren't saying that men shouldn't have equal responsibility for the baby, just that their time off shouldn't be taken from the mother. Longer paternity leave is what is needed.

It's seems a bit of a "knee jerk demand" to argue for renaming maternity leave honestly.

I strongly disagree with the way women’s spaces and services for women are being whittled away under the guise of equality or whatever bull shit excuse that is given.

But not so much in this context. I think there is some merit in changing the name to parental leave across the board. There’s often subtle power in the words we use. Perhaps changing it to “parental” might focus fathers’ minds on what the time off work they are given is actually for. It seems to me that some of them see the word paternal, think paternity - in that yes, they have paternity and then spend most of that leave on the golf course or similar. They need it hammered home that the time they get off work after their baby is born isn’t extra holiday as a reward for their exceedingly good sperm. The word parental might help with that.

I doubt men who know what being a father means would object to the name change. More importantly I don’t think it diminishes motherhood by calling a mother a parent in this context. I think it emphasises parental responsibility being as much a man’s duty as a woman’s. Maybe in this instance a name change is for the greater good.

And it’s completely different to changing the name from maternity in health services because men play no part in that. All they contribute is support much the same as friends and relatives do.

Other posters have already covered why maternity leave shouldn’t be renamed or diluted.

in addition to that, just how much confusion would you be trying to create, OP? Ordinary parental leave and shared parental leave already exist, and now you want a third type of parental leave?

When men are equally involved in growing and birthing a child, and equally capable of breastfeeding etc, then they can be treated equally.

Being equitable is more important than technical equality, in this matter.

Additionally, some women suffer birth injuries that can take months to recover from, or PND, or simply don't want to be away from their small babies. It's often called maternity leave because most women want to be the ones who stay at home, and they should get to choose that if they want, with their wishes being more important than the father's. If they don't want to take maternity leave though, no one is making them.

Part of the reason, imo, why the uptake of shared parental leave is still so low is because the fathers allowance has to come out of the mother's in the sense that it has to happen in the first 12 months. I'm exclusively breastfeeding, have no wish to faff about expressing or introducing formula so me taking the full 12 months just makes more sense (and also I actually want to and am enjoying that time off work to spend with my baby). I would love the option for my husband to have had a longer paternity leave alongside me - 2 weeks is woeful, ideally it should be a couple of months at least. Or alternatively, father's could be allowed to take it after a year thereby delaying baby's start to nursery or other childcare by a couple of months.

I know of couples where shared parental leave has worked well and that's great, but in the majority of baby classes I attend, women want men to have time off with the baby in their own right not at the expense of their maternity leave entitlement.

A change to parental leave would undermine breastfeeding. Maternity leave protects breastfeeding, which is best for the mother and baby, in terms of short and long term health.

Why on earth would a father need ANY time off before birth?

OP is not so subtly ignoring the impact of pregnancy on a woman’s body and trying to pretend men and women have an equal role in the process of reproduction. OP is trying to erase women. That can only be harmful to women.

It must remain maternity leave precisely because it recognises women.

Nope. Women, females and mothers exist. This is a slippery slope to “birthing person” rubbish.

No. Except in entirely the wrong way.

Are you in the UK? All UK employers provide this because it’s a legal requirement.

52 weeks maternity, 2 weeks paternity, and 18 weeks parental leave each. Parental leave can be taken at any time up to the child’s 18th birthday.

When men are equally involved in growing and birthing a child, and equally capable of breastfeeding etc, then they can be treated equally.

Exactly. And this sort of change of language is instrumental in obscuring this essential difference.