What is wrong with maternity leave
WITH ALL THE COMPLICATIONS WITH THE LOCATION OF WOMEN IN RUSSIAthere seems to be one area where Russians have more rights than European and American women - a decree. Russian legislation allows mothers with a child to spend the first three years of his or her life — but does it protect women’s rights so well? We understand what the legislation of different countries says about childcare and what should be the ideal maternity leave.
Attempts to increase fertility
The right of women to leave for childcare began to be enshrined in law in the XIX century. The first European country to adopt such a law was Germany in 1883; other countries followed, such as Sweden (1891) and France (1928). The situation really changed only after the Second World War. Roger-Marc de Sousa, dealing with programs relating to reproductive and maternal health, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center notes that after the war, due to heavy human losses and destruction, society pursued several goals: on the one hand, to compensate for the lack of labor and attract women to work, on the other - to convince families to have more children. The child care leave laws were supposed to protect women from harsh working conditions during pregnancy and help them return to work without hindrance. In many countries, parental leave was compulsory.
In the 1960s, European laws began to take into account the rights of working women engaged in children: employers began to provide them with the opportunity to return to the workplace after pregnancy and childbirth, and the state did pay during the holidays. Joan Williams, a professor of law at Hastings College of Law at the University of California, believes that they also tried to fight the decline in fertility in Europe: lawmakers hoped that if families feel calmer and realize that their rights are protected, and women will be sure to ensure a child, even when temporarily unable to go to work, the birth rate will only grow.
USA vs Russia
Since the 1960s, most countries have come a long way. Nevertheless, in several countries, paid child care leave is still not present in principle: Suriname, Marshall Islands, Niue, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga — and the United States. Most of the questions on this list, of course, are the last: women have only twelve weeks of unpaid parental leave available for women, and with quite strong restrictions - only women who have at least a full-time job in a company where fifty employees or more. The policy of supporting mothers is based on a completely different principle: how much women are protected remains at the mercy of each particular employer, not the state. And although individual companies like Facebook are trying to support workers who go on maternity leave (not only women, but also men), the situation as a whole is pretty bleak - women often have to choose between career and motherhood.
The very concept of "maternity leave" does not exist: there is only maternity leave and leave for child care - until it reaches the age of three.
According to a study by The Washington Post, in at least 190 countries, women are somehow provided with the opportunity to go on paid leave to care for a child - although the length of leave and payments vary from country to country. The International Labor Organization recommends providing women with at least fourteen weeks of childcare leave and providing them with benefits that would cover the costs of maintaining the health of the mother and child and allowing them to maintain their standard of living - the ILO believes that it should be at least two thirds of mother’s wages. According to The Washington Post, at least in 91 countries these recommendations are not respected: mothers are given less than fourteen weeks of paid leave at birth - such laws apply, for example, in Argentina, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mexico.
Many countries offer women between 14 and 25 weeks of vacation - such is in Europe, Central Asia, Africa and not only: for example, Australia, New Zealand, China, Israel and Switzerland adhere to such policies. A significant part of European countries provide women from six months to a year to quietly take care of the baby - among them, for example, Italy, Norway and Belgium. For example, in Norway, women can choose: 46 weeks of vacation with the preservation of one hundred percent salary or 56 weeks of vacation, but payments are reduced to 80% of salary.
Russia, along with South Korea, Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark, is included in the group of countries with the most “generous” maternity leave - 52 weeks and more. Although, of course, the very concept of “maternity leave” does not exist in Russia: there is only maternity leave (from 70 to 84 days before childbirth and 70 to 110 days after them) and leave to care for a child - until until he reaches the age of three.
The first year and a half a woman receives 40% of the average salary (at least 3000, but not more than 23,120 rubles), then a monthly compensation of 50 rubles
In 1917, the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee "On insurance in case of illness" was adopted, which introduced cash benefits for pregnancy and childbirth - probably, the popular name for the leave is associated with it. In 1956, maternity leave in the USSR increased to 112 days: 56 days before childbirth and 56 days after them. In the same year, childcare leave also appeared - at first it was three months, and by the end of the sixties it was increased to a year. True, many mothers did not use them and put their children in the nursery, as they did not receive monetary compensation.
In the modern version, maternity leave is granted to the mother before the child reaches the age of three - if desired, the second parent, such as the child’s father, grandmother, grandfather, and other relatives or guardians, may also take it (partially or fully). The law maintains a woman’s work experience and secures her workplace during the holidays. The first year and a half she receives 40% of the average salary for the last two years (at least 3000, but not more than 23,120 rubles), but then the payments end - a woman receives a monthly compensation of 50 rubles instead. It is not surprising that many use the opportunity to work part-time prescribed by law - not every family can afford to live on the salary of only one of the partners. At the same time, many mothers cannot afford to leave their parental leave earlier than in three years: it can be difficult for them to get a place in kindergarten.
How to fix the situation
The only thing that has not changed much in the parental leave over the last hundred years is that it still remains a “female” affair. According to the SuperJob survey, 39% of Russian men do not exclude the possibility of taking leave to care for a child, to whom they have every right, but in practice no more than 2% use this opportunity, mainly because they earn more than their wife or partner.
It would seem that the easiest step towards equal parenthood is the opportunity not only for the mother, but also for the father to go on leave to care for the child: this is how the woman takes less time in her career and can safely return to work after giving birth, and the man ceases to be “secondary” "parent. In practice, everything is more complicated: in spite of the fact that the possibility of both parents going on maternity leave was first introduced in Sweden back in 1974, change does not occur instantaneously. A simple opportunity to go on vacation is not enough - it is necessary that parents want to do it, and the decree is no longer perceived as a duty of the mother.
In Sweden, parental leave in the country is 16 months, two of which are set aside separately for each of the partners. If the mother decides to care for the child all the time, the partner’s two months simply “burn out”
For example, in the UK in 2015 they introduced joint maternity leave: the first two weeks of leave after birth are reserved for the mother, and the remaining 48 parents can distribute among themselves. So far, the results are not very optimistic: only one in a hundred fathers takes this opportunity. Men who are going to take maternity leave face stereotypes and pressure that working women face for decades: employers consider them less reliable employees, ostensibly because a person who cares about the family is less committed to work. Although, of course, this is not the case, and examples of individual companies show that maternity leave rather helps business: employees become more loyal to a company that helps them grow (remember the experience of Google with young mothers). According to the US Council of Economic Consultants, Californian employers who paid maternity leave to employees noted that it has a positive effect or does not affect the profitability and turnover of the business and the mood of the workers.
Examples of how to cope with the problem, it is worth looking for in Northern Europe. For example, in Sweden, parental leave in the country is 16 months, two of which are set aside separately for each parent. If the mother decides to care for the child all the time, and the partner does not want to do this, his two months simply “burn out” - it is impossible to transfer them to the other parent. Iceland also has similar quotas, and child care leave is based on the 3-3-3 system: mothers are given three months, father is given three months, and they can share three more as they like.
On the question of how to combine career and parenthood, the decree is one of its most important aspects: few doubt how important the first months with a baby are for young parents (studies show that the transition from childless life to life with a baby will be more relaxed, if parents have time to quietly restructure, not combining family affairs with work - this is what maternity leave is needed for) - just as we all know very well how difficult it is to return to work mode after a long break and how negative it is for an employer and. The ideal solution to the problem has not yet been invented, but it seems that the direction is clear: when the decree will cease to be exclusively “female”, it will become a flexible structure, with the ability to redefine roles, depending on the specific situation, and allow combining the upbringing of the child with work or a side job - perhaps both the employers and the parents themselves will cease to treat him with such apprehension.
Photo: stevecuk - stock.adobe.com, nazarovsergey - stock.adobe.com
