Maternity Leave vs. Paternity Leave
For example, more than 90 percent of the 71 survey respondents reported that their workplaces offered paid maternity leave, and more than 80 percent offered paid paternity leave.
But the differences in leave time are stark. More than 60 percent of respondents reported that their workplaces allow paid maternity leave of three months or more.
Paternity leave, on the other hand, ranged from nothing to the same length as maternity leave. The largest number of respondents, approximately 20 percent, reported paternity leave of only two weeks.
Even more concerning is the discrepancy between mothers and fathers in taking their paid leave. More than 85 percent of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that, in their workplaces, women generally take off the full duration of their maternity leave. By contrast, only 30 percent agreed that men in their workplaces use all their paternity leave.
The Impact of Differences in Leave Time
At first glance, these differences in leave time may seem logical; cisgender men don’t physically or mentally recover from pregnancy and childbirth, so one might argue they don’t need much time off. The difference in length of maternity vs. paternity leave is also relatively short, as we’re talking about a few weeks or months of leave, not years.
However, this discrepancy in maternity and paternity leave sends a subtle but troubling message that creates a significant impact. From the day a child is born, our workplaces treat that child’s parents differently.
That seemingly small difference, from day one, can foster long-term inequities between working parents, perpetuate the gender pay gap and implicit biases toward mothers, and contribute to women disproportionately leaving their jobs after becoming moms.
“Forcing fathers back to work a week or two after their child is born puts a huge burden on the mother, who then becomes basically the primary parent,” explained one respondent.
For example, when a mother is the only parent at home with a new baby, she often becomes the one to restock diapers and baby supplies because she is the one using them most. She becomes the one to do the baby's laundry because she's at home. She becomes the one to notice when it's time for pediatrician checkups.
When it's time for a mother to return to work, those tasks that seemed manageable during maternity leave can quickly add up to a significant responsibility, which can be unsustainable while also working full-time as a lawyer.
In turn, women are more likely to seek other jobs or leave the workforce entirely.
Put bluntly, current policies set up women, from the beginning, to be primary caregivers while setting up men to be secondary caregivers.
Not only is this bad for individual families, but it’s also bad for business. The cost of losing experienced attorneys, coupled with hiring pricey laterals to replace them, is significant. Legal employers need to carefully weigh the cost of offering better parental leave against the greater cost of employee turnover.
Leave Is Essential for All Parents
How did we get here? In short, the prevailing model for parental leave hasn’t caught up with the reality that most families have dual-working parents who share in family and professional responsibilities.
Likewise, the current model does little to recognize the mental or emotional aspects of becoming a new parent, which apply equally to women and men.
Parental leave is an important time for new parents to bond with their baby, learn to care for their newborn, and adapt to their new lifestyles with much less personal time. Those first few months with a baby are challenging and can significantly shape the family’s dynamic.
Critically, parental leave also allows time to address postpartum depression and anxiety, which are common in both mothers and fathers. Postpartum depression impacts 10 percent of new dads and more than 10 percent of new moms.
Given these numbers, it’s clear that forcing any parent back to the office within a few weeks of welcoming a new baby is simply too soon.
“While industries, such as law firms, might be beginning to offer a small amount of paid leave, the culture still does not support taking full leave. There’s intense pressure to return sooner, which falls on both men and women,” said another respondent.
By not supporting parents taking full leave, the respondent explained, “We’re continuing to fail to provide the next generation with fundamental [building] blocks to being an empathic contributing member to society—parental bonding and care in the early years—with this country’s outdated parental leave and pay.”
Finding Solutions for Meaningful Change
What will help? First, providing equal leave for all parents is a good starting point.
When workplaces don’t differentiate between moms and dads, employees can better share responsibilities with their partners. Not only does this help reduce stress at home—which is good for all employees—but it also helps promote equity at home and work by moving away from outdated gender roles.
When equal leave is offered and encouraged, workplaces must ensure that new parents’ work will be covered by someone else during their leave.
If new parents come back to the office with weeks or months of work to catch up on, that is overwhelming and disincentivizes taking leave.
Likewise, leaders need to promote equity between moms and dads, destigmatize parental leave, and lead by example. This means that men in leadership positions must take paternity leave when offered, regardless of how they think it may be perceived by their superiors, coworkers, or clients.
In recent years, several large firms have implemented expanded, gender-neutral parental leave policies. And while data is limited on whether new fathers are yet taking the full extent of their leave, dads are becoming more vocal about the benefit of paternity leave.
A 2021 McKinsey & Co. Inc. study on working fathers reported that 100 percent of men who took paternity leave were glad they took it and would take it again.
Finally, legal employers who want to retain employees with kids should carefully consider ways to support them in the long term.
“I left Big Law after having two kids,” said one survey respondent. “The parental leave was amazing. Sixteen weeks paid. But the support thereafter was minimal, and the expectations of a partner like me [were] unsustainable, or I did not want to sustain them.”
Other survey respondents said that policies like remote work, flexible hours, or reduced hours for the first year or two after a baby is born—when implemented without judgment or stigma—can make all the difference for workplaces to keep employees after they become parents.
“My office is supportive of working part-time or from home, but it definitely impacts your status at the firm and (I believe) partnership decisions,” said another respondent. “Because I have to work from home and cannot be available at all hours of the day, I feel that I am less valued than my counterparts.”
“It would be amazing to see more workplaces adopt written remote work policies,” echoed another respondent. “My former firm permitted the practice, and some partners touted it. But one named partner told associates that working in the office was the only way to be taken seriously as a lawyer and given good assignments.”
To prevent this, workplaces should be proactive in setting, enforcing, and respecting clear policies for remote work and flexible and reduced hours.
When legal employers enact policies to support working parents and follow through on them, the profession can begin to see meaningful improvement, both at work and at home.
