Supporting dads in the workplace is key to achieving gender equality

Written by Holly Birket, senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham and co-director of the Equal Parenting Project 

Despite advancements in gender equality, women continue to face challenges that can limit their professional growth and economic independence.

The gender pay gap in the West Midlands is larger than the national average.

Many of these challenges are societal and not easily fixed by business.

However, businesses across the region have the power to make a difference, enhancing or extending parental leave and flexible working policies for their employees, the economy and wider society.  

Attitudes to gender roles and parental responsibility continue to shift, but women continue to shoulder much of the responsibility for childcare.

This challenges their ability to stay in full-time work creating a ‘motherhood penalty’ which results in lower lifetime earnings and reduced opportunities for career advancement.

Women’s History Month may be a strange month to talk about paternity leave but when businesses create opportunities for dads to take-up parental leave, everyone feels the benefit.

Mums in the workplace are more likely to return to work earlier and full-time, improving their earning potential and career progression opportunities.

Dads sharing care is also linked to better mental and physical health of mothers, with lower rates of sickness absences.

Enhanced parental leave for dads also increases the likelihood of them staying with their existing employer, helping to reduce staff turnover and minimise costs of recruitment.

Dads working flexibly are more likely to stay with their employers, and their job satisfaction is higher. Dads involved in the care of their children report greater job satisfaction, with 70 per cent of dads who work flexibly saying their motivation levels have increased.

On the flip side, there are a variety of reasons, including better maternity pay, lack of affordability, fear of career impact and lack of awareness that prevent fathers from taking parental leave, not to mention perceived complexity.

When enhanced leave is available, many dads are still not using the full entitlement.

Despite the evidence that enhanced and extended parental leave and flexible working policies help to retain talent, a gap remains between what managers believe, the policies that businesses adopt and people’s awareness of what is available.

In the Flexible Working and Future of Work reports I have co-authored since 2020, we found that 75 per cent of managers believed that caring responsibilities should be shared equally between parents, however, only 40 per cent said their organisation offers support for parents to do this.

As businesses of all sizes work hard to retain and motivate talent, there is a competitive advantage to offering a range of opportunities for employees to balance work and family responsibilities.

To improve what you can offer your employees, start with your ambition for an inclusive working culture where parental leave and flexible working is encouraged and enhanced, and work back from there to best understand the steps that you need to take.

A supportive workplace culture should also offer practical tools and resources that encourage fathers to take time off and support them to better balance work and family responsibilities.

This suite of policies and resources should be well-communicated and accessible to all employees, with line managers equipped to support these interventions in practice. For ideas about where to start, we at the Equal Parenting Project have developed a set of free to use resources based on 10 years of research in the field.

More gender-equal sharing of childcare has the potential to reduce the gender pay gap, making better use of female talent and skills within the regional economy.

This benefits not only businesses but also families and society as a whole.

To get inspired, look at the good practice case studies from the 2023 Working Dads Employer Awards. If your business is making good progress in this space, consider applying for this year’s awards.