20 weeks of paternity leave may finally level the gender playing field for working moms

IF “leave” is defined as a break, then parental leave is a misnomer, to me at least.

For a new parent, the initial months – especially when it’s your first baby – can be unforgiving. After I gave birth to my first child, congratulatory messages flooded in from childless colleagues and friends: “Enjoy your maternity leave!” But something in me knew I wasn’t going to.

I treasure the four months spent bonding with my newborns while away from work. But beyond that, the time was critical in helping me work out and stabilise new routines, as well as early stressors (like jaundice) or peculiarities (like colic, reflux), common or uncommon.

My husband’s two weeks of paternity leave – which he took in the early days – was a godsend. Amid the tears, struggle to get breastfeeding going and postpartum fog, my nights turned to days with no clear demarcation between them. He helped organise the household, sought help when needed, and kept things moving. His stability brought sanity to a totally new domestic situation we both had to adapt to.

We had decided early on that his first week of paternity leave would start from the day I went into labour, with the second saved for after my confinement, when my nanny left us to fend for ourselves.

How new parents managed before the government introduced a week’s paternity leave in 2013, later doubling it to two weeks in 2017, is something I will never comprehend.

In this year’s Budget, the government announced that this would be extended to four weeks starting next year, but on a voluntary basis on the employers’ part – they would be allowed to claim an additional two weeks’ pay from the government if they grant new fathers four weeks’ leave.

In due course, the four weeks will be mandatory, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong assures us.

Equalising paternity and maternity leave

This week, Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) announced 20 weeks’ paid paternity leave, to match the 20 weeks it currently already gives to new mothers (and adoptive moms too).

Generous as it is, Stanchart is not the first to roll out such progressive practices. At Hewlett Packard, moms and dads have been enjoying 26 weeks’ paid parental leave since October 2019, and British alcohol giant Diageo and media conglomerate Bloomberg started their employees on this that same year.

Bloomberg even throws in 10 transition days – one day off per week for 10 consecutive weeks – when an employee returns to work from paternity or maternity leave.

The whole family gains

The benefits of such HR policies to work-life balance and mental health cannot be overstated. Giving a new father the same length of leave as a new mother is, for me at least, an idea that is groundbreaking, refreshing, and potentially mindset-shifting too.

After my experience with two babies, it is my belief that a father should be present at home minimally for the first month of a baby’s life.

I’m not alone in this – Aware (the Association of Women for Action and Research) executive director and veteran women’s rights advocate Corinna Lim cites a 2020 qualitative study by the Institute of Policy Studies that showed working fathers here find two weeks’ paternity leave too short to meaningfully contribute, and learn the skills for caregiving after a child’s birth.

A 2021 McKinsey study, Lim notes, found that all 130 new fathers and their partners surveyed across 10 countries including Singapore were glad they took their paternity leave, and wanted to do so again.

The child, of course, gains too. A National University of Singapore study found that children whose dads took paternity leave when they were born are significantly less likely to face hyperactivity or antisocial behaviour issues.

As Lim points out, the belief that mothers should have more leave than fathers because of breastfeeding is misguided. Care for a newborn involves way more than breastfeeding.

Diapering, bathing, burping, bottle-feeding, swaddling the baby – all new skills that take time to master. Not to mention laundry, cleaning, and other household chores that seem to grow exponentially with the arrival of a new family member who is completely incapable of contributing anything.

The situation gets even trickier with a recovering postpartum mother who might have suffered labour diffculties or is in danger of postpartum depression. The support of a husband and father in this early period is invaluable – even indispensable.

Win-win for staff and employer

But the most important plus point here is this: When dads are more involved and can take more time off to help out at home, working moms can focus more at work and succeed at it. With dads having more leave and flexibility to be present for the children, they can bond better with their babies, mothers will feel less obliged to quit their jobs and stay home with the children, and perhaps more freed up to return to work if they so desire.

Institute of Policy Studies principal research fellow Mathew Mathews argues that the nation can even be “so much bolder” in this regard.

“For these companies (that give equal paternity and maternity leave) it is clear that going above and beyond to provide their employees with such benefits is part of a robust strategy to attract and retain talent, and does not detract from their pursuit of the pecuniary,” he writes in a February 2023 commentary.

But will dads use this longer leave?

Can employers avoid stigmatising the taking of paternity leave, though? Can fathers stop feeling like they will be penalised for taking all of it? Can they stop feeling emasculated for wanting to be present in the home?

These questions sound repetitive – they were, after all, debated when the case was made for instituting paternity leave. But a decade on, they remain relevant.

Last year, half of fathers here, versus just 25 per cent back then, took their paternity leave when their babies were born. The social definition of fatherhood is definitely evolving, and that’s helped plenty. But the statistic above tells me, at least, that there are still half of new dads who don’t – which means advocacy and mindset change still have some ways to go.

What that tells me, ultimately, is that we need to keep the discussion alive, if we are to move the needle further.