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Articles on Parental leave

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Karina Gould pauses to talk to reporters as she carries her three-month-old baby, Oliver Gerones, following a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

3 lessons from MP Karina Gould’s parental leave that could help all Canadian families

Karina Gould’s parental leave is similar to that of many Canadians. Yet there are key differences, and they offer lessons on how parental leave could be redesigned to help more Canadian parents.
Too few Canadian fathers take parental leave. That’s because parental leave is framed as an employment policy rather than as care/work policy that promotes greater sharing of both paid and unpaid care work between parents. (Shutterstock)

Improved employment policies can encourage fathers to be more involved at home

If more Canadian fathers are to harness the benefits of parental leave and remote work, we need to design employment and care policies in ways that recognize every family’s unique needs.
Fathers’ brains adjust their structure and function to parenthood. María Paternina-Die

Fatherhood changes men’s brains, according to before-and-after MRI scans

Neuroscientists know that pregnant mothers’ brains change in ways that appear to help with caring for a baby. Now researchers have identified changes in new fathers’ brains, too.
Child-care policy needs to be designed to ensure children have stable access to high-quality care. (Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages)

Low-income families should not lose child-care subsidies while on parental leave

Stable child care can protect kids in the face of major life stressors — so should subsidy policies.
The gift of sleep, time, self-care (“me time”) and a message of what a remarkable job she is doing may be what new mothers need most this Mother’s Day. (Shutterstock)

Helping new moms return to exercise and leisure supports their physical and mental health

Mothers with young children are consistently identified as having lower levels of physical activity and leisure opportunities, which place their physical and mental health at risk.
Shutterstock

The fatherhood penalty: how parental leave policies perpetuate the gender gap (even in our ‘progressive’ universities)

You might expect progressive policies in our universities, but a parental leave system of primary and secondary caregivers – the first 93% women, the second 96% men – perpetuates the gender gap.
In this January 2019 photo, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser kisses her daughter after being sworn in. Will the coronavirus stop women’s careers from advancing or lead to societal changes that will make advancement easier? (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

The coronavirus could either help or hinder women’s candidacies

Whatever the eventual impact on women’s candidacies post-pandemic, COVID-19 has the potential to shock the system, upending or reinforcing existing gender imbalances in political power.
Single-parent families are getting less paid leave but perhaps need more of it. shurkin_son/Shutterstock.com

Parental leave laws are failing single parents

Forty percent of US babies are born to unmarried parents. But the new paid leave policy for most federal workers disadvantages single parents.

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