Male lawyers help blaze trail toward increased parental leave
Male lawyers seeking to play a more active role in the lives of their very young children have been helping to blaze a trail toward expanded parental leave policies.
Reflecting a sea change in the traditional assumption that such leave should be focused on women, men also are taking time off from work when a baby is born or an adoption occurs, according to the New York Times (reg. req.). However, as with women, men also can face on-the-job discrimination simply for taking leave that is officially offered by their employers.
“The huge thing that’s changed only in about the past five years is suddenly men feel entitled to take time off for family,” says Joan Williams of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. “They’re willing to put their careers on the line to live up to that idea. It’s revolutionary.”
One issue that fathers are bringing to the fore is differentiated leave policies for moms and dads. CNN and Turner Broadcasting settled on undisclosed terms last week an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administrative case concerning correspondent Josh Levs.
Refused more than two weeks off when a third child was born prematurely in 2013, he brought a complaint against the network because women and adoptive parents were allowed 10 weeks under what was then CNN’s policy, the newspaper reports.
Attorney David Reina, who has twice taken paternity leave, once at each of two different unidentified law firms, said both male and female senior associates were implicitly given the message that taking a full leave for a new baby wasn’t a good idea if they wanted to make partner. At each firm, the policy was to allow about 18 weeks to the primary caregiver (usually female) and four weeks for the other parent.
There was, however, one difference between how men and women were treated, he told the Times:
“The woman was more quickly written off; the expectation was that she’ll take a lot of time off. For the man, it’s more like, ‘Oh, here’s a test for him. What’s he going to do?’ ”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Dechert settles ex-associate’s ‘macho culture’ family leave case”
