Paid Paternity Leave

Researchers found that half of men and 56% of women think that it's hard to balance work and family in the US. Moreover, 48% of men and 52% of women said that they'd preferably stay home with their kids than work (The Pew Research Center). One of the prevalent complications confronting the American labor force is that of adjusting work and family. As of late, fathers have undertaken augmented roles in raising children; it is presently conventional for a father to be a full-time, stay-at-home guardian, or for a father to share equal responsibility in the family and in child-rearing. Albeit paid leave is regularly viewed as an issue that matters to working women, paid parental leave is also fundamentally critical for fathers. While it is pertinent
that women receive maternity leave after the birth of a child the government should pass an all-state mandated law that offers new fathers paid paternal leave, so that it can promote parent-child relationships, build gender equality in the workforce and home, and generate productivity within the workforce. America is the only developed country in the world that doesn't “mandate paid paternity leave” (Huffington Post).
Currently, to be eligible in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), one must be working at a business for more than one year, and the business must have over fifty employees to take “unpaid job-protected leave for the adoption or birth of a child” (US Department of Labor). In addition, employers that offer medical related maternity leave don't offer paid paternity leave to new fathers (Huffington Post). California, Rhode Island and New Jersey and Washington state are the only states to offer paid paternity leave. Regardless of these policies a majority of the fathers face financial and societal limitations that keeps them from taking paternal
leave. In an era where equality is stressed relentlessly by society, there is a discriminatory disposition on paternal leave for new fathers. It appears that both men and women all through America feel equally unsatisfied about the work-family balance offered by their employers. That's why in some cases, if the mother’s income is higher than the father, she may sacrifice weeks of maternity leave for the father staying at home. In light of these discoveries, the government need to urge businesses to consider not just what they can do to keep the modern father happy, but what they can do to keep everybody happy. Happy personal lives, including fulfilling family lives, equate to more productive employees and a robust economy. (Insert Quote and cite). To accomplish what is best for their associations and everyone in them, the government ought to implement an assortment of family-accommodating arrangements businesses should follow; however, at times, those policies, based on an ingrained yet outdated definition of masculinity, overlook recent research that sheds light on the complexities of masculinity, the role of the modern father, and the true benefits of paternity leave.
Policies that guarantee fathers have the encouragement they need to consolidate their family commitments, while taking care of work requests, can profoundly increase the individual and financial well being of families.
Paternity leave (and particularly longer leaves) has shown to promote healthy and active father-child relationships. According to The Economist, fathers who were offered paid paternity leave in Sweden, Britain, and Australia were more likely to take on daily responsibility (feeding, bathing playing with their child long after their paternity leave ended. In addition, fathers who took time off were more likely to read books to their kids which in turn promotes early literacy learning. Moreover, a study by University of Oslo found that fathers who took paternity leave, boosts children’s performance at a secondary level (Economist). If ‘paid’ paternity leave were to be offered in all state it would enhance children's cognitive abilities outcome and have fathers build a better, and more stronger relationship with their child, without having to sacrifice their finances while spending quality family
time.
There's a societal stigma attached to fathers who take time off after the birth of a baby. Few women feel that fathers don’t earn the right to paternity leave, because it's women’s bodies that go through a callous nine months of abnormality. However, it is proven that not only does paternity leave benefits father-child relationships, but it also stimulates a healthier relationship with their partners. Men who were offered paid paternity leave were more likely to help around the house (chores), cook and provide restorative care for their partners, and also continue to do these things after their leave ended (Adecco). Moreover, paid paternal leave can speed up the psychological recovery of women who suffers from post-partum depression. Fifty-one couples that participated in a study conducted by the US National Library of Medicine found that after women were diagnosed with post partum depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and fathers who took “unpaid” paternal leave, resulted that the “lack of paternal involvement was a significant predictor of the intensity of the depressive state of mothers.” In addition, the study concluded that the father’s involvement of the treatment of postpartum depression and actively caring for the baby sped up the recovery process for the mother (PubMed.gov). Paid paternity leave would greatly cut down the cost of additional medical care for mother with postpartum depression, and benefit the family.
Disappointment with current paternity leave policies in the US are becoming known an increasing amount. For instance, a 2011 Boston College study presumed that numerous expecting fathers feel their employers don't welcome their circumstance the way they value the circumstances of expecting mothers(cite). Usually the idea that it's more beneficial for a kid to bond with his or her mom, while the men sacrifice their time to bond with the child to work, has a great deal to do with conventional sexist prejudices preferences about child rearing and the way that women battled a historic fight to adjust family and work (cite) The study proposes that if businesses enhance their relations with new fathers by offering strategic scheduling, working from home, and daycare options on top of permitting them to profit from paternity leave men wouldn’t experience sexism about spending more time with their kids. The study additionally encourages bosses to proactively contact new fathers by organizing support groups and provide informative collateral, all of which can shatter conventional social barriers that keep a few fathers from being straightforward about their sentiments, along these lines keeping them from taking the time they should be with their children.