False Equality: The Paternity Leave Trap

Our political representatives seem determined to impose something that does not exist anywhere else in the world: equal and non-transferable paternity and maternity leave. How did we get to this curious situation?

In 1999, during the Aznar government, it was decided that the mother could transfer 10 of her 16 weeks of maternity leave to the father. It was, I believe, the first time in history that the rights of the mother were reduced in order to increase those of the father.

The new law imitated a measure previously taken in Sweden, where, if I remember correctly, there were at that time 15 months of leave: one month for the mother, one month for the father, and the rest is distributed as they want. Our authorities decided to imitate the Swedes in the distribution, which was progressive and did not cost money, but not in the 15 months, of course. We spread the misery.

Since then there have been requests for maternity leave to be extended to at least 6 months (until the baby begins to eat other things besides the breast). Successively, both the PP and PSOE governments have refused, arguing that it would be too expensive and Spain could not afford it. In that time, they have found money to increase paternity leave from three days initially to two and then to four weeks.

Transferring maternity leave to the father may be appropriate in some very specific cases. But, for most families, it is clearly better for the mother to be with the baby for those 16 weeks. Because it is she who needs to recover from pregnancy and childbirth, because she is the one who breastfeeds, and because it is with her that the baby establishes its primary attachment bond.

For a baby it is not the same to be with Mom as with Dad, and four-month-old children do not tolerate a separation of eight or ten hours.

Only 2 or 3% of mothers have transferred part of their maternity leave to the father, something that some have described as a “failure” of the conciliation law. This shows us the curious mental mechanisms of some who think they are progressives: “We will let them choose, so they can choose what I want. But if the very foolish choose otherwise, then we will make it mandatory. “

They try to make us believe that 98% of the mothers were looking forward to going back to work at six weeks, but that their macho husbands have forced them to stay home. They are not able to accept that families have freely chosen, and they want to continue to do so.

Parental leave that mothers don’t want

With typical Hispanic stubbornness, contemplating that in no country in the world there are equal and non-transferable permits (neither in the most socially advanced, nor in the most prosperous, nor in the most egalitarian) does not make our politicians reconsider (“maybe there is a reason for that difference ”), but instead prompts them to jump into the abyss:“ we will be the first! ”

How can it be that all parliamentary groups support the measure, if only 2% of families put it into practice when they have the opportunity? Because one thing is what you vote in an abstract way, when they offer you equality and you think, “yeah, sure, equality is cool,” and quite another thing what you do in real life, when you have a baby of two or two. four months, and you see how he behaves with his father and mother, and what happens when the mother has to go out for a couple of hours for an errand, and they ask you: “Do you want to be separated from your baby 8 or 10 hours a day? starting tomorrow, or would you prefer to delay it for another two or three months? “

It has been said that long maternity leave hurts women, because employers would prefer not to hire them. But in that case, the famous wage gap would hurt men, because employers would prefer to hire women, who earn less. But that does not happen, and of course men are not going to ask us to reduce our salary to be more competitive. If women are discriminated against at work, it is not because of the needs of children, but because of the machismo of adults.

Equal and non-transferable permits would suddenly double the State’s spending on aid to parents. If they approve it, they will not want to spend a euro more, and the workers will see the possibility of overcoming those shameful 16 weeks that put us at the bottom of Europe several decades away.

If one day there is a budget for an equal and non-transferable leave of two years for the father and two for the mother, it will seem acceptable to me. But I would prefer six months for the mother, six for the father and three years to distribute as they want. I’m not scared of people being free, do you?