Why now is the time to take action on paternity leave

A new campaign was launched last week to press for better paternity leave. The Dad Shift’s launch was timely with the Labour government promising a review of parental leave within its first year in office. 

The campaign is the brainchild of dads Alex Lloyd Hunter and George Gabriel. George had his daughter just over a year ago and benefited from four months of paid paternity leave at Meta. He says it was ‘the most valuable time’. He was able to support his wife who was recovering from a C-section, be with his daughter when she went into hospital with a fracture and look after his wife when she broke her leg. It also meant that he could build a more equal parenting partnership because he understood his daughter’s needs through spending lots of time with her.

Both George and Alex have a background as campaigners and they became more and more aware of how poor the UK’s paternity leave policy was – the worst in Europe at just two weeks on a rate that is under the minimum wage. There is nothing for self employed dads. George also speaks about the current backlash against gender equality, led by the likes of Andrew Tate. He started posting about this on LinkedIn and, through that, met Alex and also Marvin Harrison from Dope Black Dads. They spoke about how they could bring more dads into the movement to press for better paternity leave. 

Statues

At the moment the campaign is run on a voluntary basis, alongside Alex and George’s jobs. They partner with other organisations such as the Fatherhood Institute and Pregnant Then Screwed, but bring all their campaigning and digital skills to the party.

Pregnant Then Screwed put baby slings on a number of statues at the last Labour party conference.  George says that Dad Shift is keen to build on that. So last week he met up with a contact from the Sling Library at 6.30am and they went with photographers to the Emirates stadium and tied babies and slings to statues, including Thierry Henry and Tony Adams. They spread this around London and got a very positive reaction from bystanders. George says they were trying to make the point that women in public life often get asked about their children whereas men don’t. The photos and The Dad Shift’s open letter to Keir Starmer got coverage around the world, from the US to India and Australia.

Now is the moment

George says he thinks the time is right after years of stasis for the UK to forge a more positive path when it comes to equal parenting. Labour has said it will review parental leave policy and there is a big concern about growth which George says is in part tied to lifting some of the pressures on the workforce, including parents.  “Countries that have better paternity leave have a smaller gender pay gap and workforce participation gap and can grow more,” he says, adding: “This is the moment to be clear that being the worst in Europe is not good enough. Now is the time to take action. This is the first opportunity in over a decade that we have had to overhaul the system.”

The Dad Shift will be handing in its open letter to the Prime Minister in the next few weeks. Already thousands of dads have signed it. Next they plan to work with employers and to showcase those who are offering equal parental leave policies as well as to equip dads with the tools they need to have conversations with their employers about better paternity benefits. 

*To sign the petition, click here.

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