2/9/25

Rise of ‘dad allies’ helps shift childcare burden

Research shows giving fathers adequate time off can help women’s careers, and in the UK men are campaigning for it

Series

Author

Women who feel their ambitions have been hindered by childcare responsibilities might be gratified to learn that men in many parts of the world are increasingly sharing the load.

But some countries are lagging behind and The Dad Shift, a campaign group, is convinced it knows why this is the case in the UK, where statutory paternity leave, at only two weeks, is considerably less generous than many of its peers. As part of its push for change it organised a protest on June 11 to press lawmakers to increase both the provision and the very low statutory pay.

The Dad Shift campaign is supported by a wide range of organisations, including Pregnant Then Screwed, a charity dedicated to ending the “motherhood penalty”, a term used to describe the negative impact on career progression and wage growth for mothers compared with fathers and childless peers.

Existing paternity leave “is bad for everyone in the family. It’s a key driver of the motherhood penalty and it robs fathers of that time they need to bond with their child and learn how to be an active caregiver,” says Alex Lloyd Hunter, co-founder of The Dad Shift.

The group is also backed by the Fatherhood Institute, a charity that promotes fatherhood; and Parenting Out Loud, a campaign to encourage support of fathers in the workplace.

“For children themselves, there’s tonnes of evidence that having a closer relationship with their father, or having their father more involved in their childcare, they are more likely to grow up happier, do better in school, have better cognitive development,” says Lloyd Hunter.

For women, though, having active “dad allies” can make all the difference too.

Analysis of OECD data suggests that countries with more than six weeks of paid paternity leave have a 4 percentage point smaller gender wage gap than countries with less than six weeks, according to the Centre for Progressive Policy, a think-tank.

Countries with more than six weeks of paid paternity leave have a 4 percentage point smaller gender wealth gap than countries with less than six weeks

“The expectations placed on mothers in our modern-day society are simply unsustainable,” says Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed.

“In countries where they have managed to create a culture shift so that dads do more of the caring, mothers tend to report far lower stress levels. They are also more likely to earn more, offering greater financial independence.”

At present, the law provides that new fathers in the UK each week receive the lower of £187.18 or 90 per cent of their average weekly earnings, for their elected designated paternity leave.

The UK introduced shared parental leave in 2015 but only 5 per cent of employed fathers took their entitlement to share up to 50 weeks with their partner, according to a 2023 government report.

The researchers also found one of the main barriers preventing fathers from taking their entitlement was that they could not afford to do so.

The UK trails significantly behind many of its peers in dedicated paternity leave offered.

In Sweden, each parent gets at least 90 days from a 480-day shared leave policy.

In Norway, fathers are entitled to take at least 15 weeks off, paid at 100 per cent of their salary. France is less generous, but still offers 28 days, the first few of which are compulsory immediately after the birth and capped at around €100 per day.

In the US, however, there is no compulsory paid paternity leave at federal level, although 12 weeks can be taken unpaid by eligible employees and some states offer paid leave.

Despite the wide variation in policies, sharing childcare duties just feels like common sense for some fathers.

Pete Nottage, a father of two, admits he did not set out to become the primary caregiver. But his wife, Natasha Irons, is a UK member of parliament, which involves spending full days in Westminster or doing constituency work, so taking on more responsibilities was the natural thing to do.

As a voiceover artist, he is able to work flexibly, including from his home studio. This allows him to do school pick-ups or put the children to bed, but also to carry out household chores.

Nottage acknowledges this is a juggle usually performed by working mothers, so he is almost embarrassed that his contribution should be lauded.

“If one person [in a parenting couple] needs extra support, the other person should step up and do what they can,” Nottage says. “I don’t think it’s a case of me doing ‘the right thing’, it’s just that in a family you keep on, keeping on.”

But he is still in a small minority.

A study by researchers at the University of Southampton, published last month, found that even with flexible working, UK mothers are still more likely to take on the lion’s share of childcare tasks, such as getting children dressed, staying at home when a child is sick or doing pick-ups and drop-offs.

To examine and address those obstacles, Holly Birkett and Sarah Forbes set up the Equal Parenting Project, a research partnership between the universities of Birmingham and York. It aims to improve the use of family-friendly policies and flexible working in the UK. The project’s leads have noticed more active interest in the benefits of equal parenting. “There is definitely more energy and more campaigns now,” says Birkett.

Also backing the campaign for increased UK paternity leave is Marvyn Harrison, founder of Dope Black Dads, an online digital space and podcast that helps fathers navigate parenthood.

Harrison, who is in a co-parenting relationship, has custody of his children every other week.

He is able to fit his career as a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant around his family’s needs.

“I always consider my co-parent in what I need to do, whether it is travelling for work or changing my schedule around so I don’t add more burden.”

Among this new generation of fathers there is also a desire to set positive examples of masculinity at a time when there is a growing backlash against gender equality.

Lloyd Hunter at The Dad Shift points to a survey that concluded 47 per cent of Britons think equality for women has gone too far.

“No one benefits from women being locked into traditional homemaker roles and men being locked out,” says Lloyd Hunter.

No one benefits from women being locked into traditional homemaker roles and men being locked out

“By actually working together on [improved paternity leave] and winning change on something that is good for men and women, it shows that feminism is not a zero-sum game. It’s not ‘we win, you lose’.”

‍

This article is republished from the Financial Times.