Parental Leave Equality in Finland

One of the best pieces of news of the year so far has to be Finland’s decision to increase paid paternity leave to 7 months, in line with maternity leave. I believe equal paternity leave is one of the biggest interventions we can make to fight gender inequality. There are lots of reasons for this. It is proven to lead to fathers taking a greater share of the family and household chores way beyond the paternity leave, which has an important impact on the time and capacity a mother has for her career (for many women today it simply doesn’t all fit). And if a man in a job is as likely to take the same paternity leave as a woman, it will put an end to decisions being made by managers based on a woman’s possibility of pregnancy and its consequences. 

The one shame in the policy is that the father can donate 69 days of the leave to the mother - they should erase this bit! It is so important that the policy becomes reality and that men actually take the full paternity leave, I hope they will have the courage to - it is a great thing they can do not just for their family, but for the gender equality cause and society in general.