Inequality persists between women and men in Ireland, and care is at the heart of this. The fact that women have a greater responsibility for providing care for children, or often older family members, means that they are simply unlikely to earn as much as their male counterparts. The effects of this inequality touch every aspect of women’s lives.
Child-related leave such as maternity, paternity and parent’s leave are critically important policies to ensure that parents can look after their children. There is clear evidence that supporting both parents to access leave in a child’s first months has long-term positive effects for both parents and children. These leave supports also play a key role towards achieving equality around caring responsibilities. This is particularly true in Ireland, a wealthy country with a persistently poor track record in delivering affordable childcare, and a reliance on the market to deliver this public good.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Economic and Social Research Institute recently published a report titled Child Related Leave: Usage and Implications for Gender Equality.
The findings of the report on child-related leave benefits and the impact on gender equality in the workplace show that despite rising numbers of women in paid work, a significant gender income gap persists. This is primarily caused by the fact that there are fewer women in the workforce than men, and that women are more likely to be in part-time work, usually due to caring responsibilities. The gender income gap usually emerges after the birth of a child and continues throughout a woman’s whole life.
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The report finds that while the introduction of family leave policies such as paternity leave and parent’s leave has been a positive development, take-up rates among men remain low. In Ireland, two weeks of paternity leave is available to new parents (usually fathers) of children under six months. Nine weeks of paid parent’s leave is available to parents of children under two years of age. Both benefits are paid at a standard rate of €289 per week.
[ Why do only half of Irish fathers take paternity leave?Opens in new window ]
Despite paternity leave being available in Ireland since 2016, only half of fathers avail of it. Even more striking is that just a quarter of men take parent’s leave, contrasting with a two-thirds take-up rate for women.
A large part of the reason for this is that the related welfare benefits are paid at a flat rate, so families often face significant drops in income by taking up this leave.
This link between rates of support and take-up is supported by the report’s analysis of administrative data. Using a 10 per cent sample of all births between 2019 and 2022, the report analyses the characteristics linked with the take-up of paternity and parent’s benefit, as well as the duration of paid and unpaid maternity leave.
The findings reveal that higher-paid fathers, who are more likely to receive employer top-ups, took more paternity leave. Paternity leave take-up was also higher for those working in larger companies where a replacement might be more readily available. Conversely, parent’s leave usage by both fathers and mothers falls with their earnings, again likely a reflection of flat-rate payments impacting on affordability. In couples where the mother was the higher earner, fathers were more likely to use parent’s leave, whereas single parents were less likely to take it up.
A clear age gradient can also be seen with older fathers less likely to take up paternity leave – perhaps a reflection of differing attitudes surrounding caring responsibilities but also possibly more seniority in their job.
[ Is there such a thing as too much parental leave?Opens in new window ]
Significantly, a survey experiment found that there were high levels of public support for ensuring that fathers have 100 per cent of their earnings covered while on leave, and for ring-fencing part of child-related leave for fathers only. Both mothers and fathers want to access this leave, and there is strong support for more progressive and egalitarian policies in this area.
So what can we do to ensure more men avail of family leave policies? The first key step relates to the available rates of support. The report found that Ireland is investing about a third of the OECD average on family leave supports. The current reliance on employers to top up parents’ income has resulted in a large variation in the pay that different families receive while taking child-related leave. Therefore, increasing the replacement rate of State-funded benefits to cover a larger proportion of earnings would likely increase take-up by fathers.
A second step to increase take-up rates is to promote awareness of leave entitlements among parents, particularly fathers, as is addressing the workplace norms and attitudes that may discourage fathers from taking leave.
More generally, Ireland can and must find a new relationship between paid employment, care and gender roles, underpinned by measures to support employed parents and other carers. Public childcare was a persistent topic in the lead-up to the general election, and it is clear that as a State, we must now move towards policies that support both women and men to combine care with paid employment through better, paid family leave and accessible, affordable, quality childcare.
As signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women , the State is obliged to fully commit to eliminating all forms of discrimination between men and women. And this summer, Ireland’s record in this area will be examined by the UN in Geneva. This is an important moment for gender equality. Changing deeply ingrained attitudes to care and work is difficult, but the recommendations in this report show that by supporting families to access these important supports, we can shift to a position where caring is both valued and more equally shared between men and women.
Liam Herrick is the Chief Commissioner with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission
