If they made paternity leave an equivalent length of time - and mandatory - then they could resolve a lot of the discrimination women face in the middle of their career when employers assume they will disappear on mat leave and withhold promotions.
Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave
Submitted 2 months ago by GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
Comments
steeznson@lemmy.world 2 months ago
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 2 months ago
That’s a pretty awesome idea, I’m not going to lie!
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
There are already way, way too many people on the planet. We shouldn’t be forced to subsidize someone else’s family.
alligatorSoup@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Those new people being born will end up funding your state pention. Unless your fine not having one
faceula@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So true the amount of people that don’t get this.
state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
They’ll also fund all infrastructure in the future, produce all goods and staff the nursing homes where these egotistical assholes will end up.
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I’d rather have a functioning ecosystem and mitigated climate change.
FozzyOsbourne@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Not to put words in your mouth, but do you really think the best reason to have a child is for the good of the economy?
Zip2@feddit.uk 2 months ago
We shouldn’t be forced to support someone else’s family.
I hope you’ll remember that should you or your family ever need state hand outs.
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I’m fine with regular support for people who need it, but not paying for people to create more people. There are WAY too many of us already.
HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Your logic is flawed. Even if we reduced births to 10% of current rates. Those children would need more parental support for longer. As that generation would be more dependent on parental and family bonding due to lack of a same aged community to learn and grow with.
We are a species evolved to have very, very dependent young, rather than most other mammals. This presented up with advantages in the predator / prey fight that is evolution. But it also left our young depended on tribal societies to survive.
Parental leave is just the modern capitalistic equivalent of the tribe coming together to raise its young. It is the recent historic lack of it in many societies and post-industrial revolution that is odd. Not the return.
You as a non parent will eventually need these children to learn to manage the society you live in. Just because you choose to be child free yourself. Does not mean you will not depend on them as adults as you age. As you age you will need educated doctors nurses and Bin men to ensure your life is liveable. Those adults are the very children you think are not your responsibility now.
But unless you are a hermit living entirely on the milk of your own land. (if so you are already not funding this).
Then yes, you and all of us are involved in raising the future population.
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I get all of that, I also understand that we literally have no choice but to change how we live because it’s completely unsustainable.
Ignoring the fact that the Earth is already way over populated isn’t helping anything.
bigbrowncommie69@hexbear.net 2 months ago
Piss off Malthus
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Another thoughtful argument from Hexbear.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I was thinking of thanos but yeah
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
They weren’t way too many people on the planet there’s way too much holding resources, you monumental pillock
fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Unless you have a super duper magical way of changing how billions of people live, it’s both.
faceula@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Guess you won’t be needing that state pension when you retire then…
Etterra@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Imagine having the luxury of being able to complain that your paternity leave isn’t long enough. Make me glad I’ve got no intention of having kids here in the US.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
You absolutely do have the luxury to do that. You just choose not to.
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Paternity leave in the UK isn’t great.
And there’s nothing stopping people from doing the same in the US.
LordOfLocksley@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Hard to complain, when they’re busy kissing the corporate boot
Muffi@programming.dev 2 months ago
U N I O N I Z E
Zip2@feddit.uk 2 months ago
You’re not the only one who’s glad you’re not having kids.
Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I thought shared parental leave was a legal minimum? For the uninitiated, that’s where some or all the maternity leave can be given to the paternal parent, meaning there isn’t an inequality.
If they are campaigning for more for both parents, I’m not sure I am on the same page. I can see how this would make me unpopular though.
OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk 2 months ago
It’s mad that it’s not equal, if mothers and fathers have equal childcare leave there’s no need to discriminate against hiring women full time (which is a thing that still happens, some companies don’t like to take women in their mind 20s full time cos they end up taking maternity, I saw this happen first hand while I was in RBS, that was only 2 jobs/a few years ago)
Foreigner@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I live in a country where parental leave doesn’t discriminate between mothers and fathers (or one parent or another if it’s a same sex couple). Parental leave can be up to two years BUT it’s split into 60% for one parent, 30% for the other. I have yet to meet a man who has taken even a fraction of that 30% (aside from the paternal leave right after the baby is born, which is separate and covers a few weeks). This isn’t to say it’s an issue with men, but more an issue of a society that dissuades men from taking more than the bare minimum of parental leave, where women are still expected to take one the main caregiver role for children, and where men generally earn more than women. Until these issues are fixed and men are highly encouraged to take parental leave, just making that time available (even if a necessary first step) won’t be enough.
OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk 1 month ago
It’s a weird position to take, if I was offered parental leave I’d take it all and probably wouldn’t want to come back to work.
Fair enough if you live in a place where people actually like their jobs and want to be there, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for the majority of us.