Does equality within young families require parental leave?

Act at the federal level

Parental leave plans are not new. Several similar attempts have failed in Bern. Due to the absence of federal legislation, a myriad of disorderly practices have arisen in the private sector and numerous cantonal initiatives have also emerged. The one that has caused the most ink to flow in French-speaking Switzerland is Geneva. The Green Liberals’ project came to fruition in 2023, but the Confederation put the brakes on this 24-week parental leave: “the new article of the Geneva Constitution is not compatible with federal law”, indicated the Council federal last May, followed by parliament in September. A modification of the federal law on allowances for loss of earnings is necessary so that Geneva can apply its parental leave.

Faced with this situation, “it is now essential to have a solution for all of Switzerland,” says Lisa Mazzone. This initiative will make it possible to meet the challenge of the labor shortage and that of inequalities within families. And the young mother recalls that the country is “the bottom of the OECD countries for parental leave. In Switzerland, we enter the maternity ward as a modern couple. We come out as a traditional couple. From the start, the distribution of stereotypical family roles is established. It all depends on the woman. We do not expect the second parent to assume half of the responsibilities from the birth of a child. This has a cost for women, particularly when young mothers return to the job market. “A breakup occurs with the first child and gets worse with the second,” explains Lisa Mazzone.

A 900 million francs project

The Greens are not setting off on this adventure alone. Alongside them, elected officials from the Center, the Green Liberals, the Travail.suisse union and Alliance F are carrying out the project for more equality in the family and the world of work. And they will need this to pass off what is perceived by the initiators as an “investment for the whole of society”, but as a financial pit by others. Such an initiative will cost some 900 million francs which “will be refinanced after twenty years,” adds the Geneva politician. This is thanks to the creation of jobs, estimated at 25,000 full-time equivalents in ten years, as women will be able to return fully and more quickly to the job market. At least that’s what the study shows Cost benefit analysis of equal parental leave.»

For the ecologist, “we must face reality: today, the framework conditions are not met to carry out a modern family project. This initiative also puts women on an equal footing with men in the job market. After maternity leave, employers regularly push women out. When they return to the job market, they are often at a very partial rate, with negative consequences in terms of salary and possible development. Our proposal ensures fair competition in the labor market.

Fathers facing parental leave

Currently, mothers are entitled to maternity leave of at least fourteen weeks. Fathers have the right to two weeks of paid leave in the six months following the birth of their child, since January 1, 2021. A model which is anything but equal and which does not really change the situation as shown by an analysis published on January 16 by the Federal Social Insurance Office (FOSA): “Mothers take their leave more often than fathers”. In this study, we see, quite logically, that “almost all mothers in Switzerland took paid maternity leave in 2022, but only three quarters of fathers did the same. The reason why fathers renounce their rights is less linked to social norms than to their professional situation and their income,” reveal Anja Roth and Ulrike Unterhofer, respectively deputy of the Basic data and analyzes sector and scientific collaborator at the OFAS.

The two economics doctors also “analyzed the influence of gender norms, prevalent among fathers or those around them, on taking parental leave. To this end, we compared the cantonal approval rates during the popular vote of September 27, 2020 on paternity leave with the percentage of eligible fathers who actually take their leave. It appears that the percentage of fathers not taking their leave is particularly high in the cantons which had voted by a clear majority in favor of the introduction of paternity leave. While Geneva and Basel-City had accepted the initiative, this is where we find the lowest rate of fathers having taken paternity leave. Conversely, it is in Appenzell Innerrhoden and Uri that fathers take this leave the most, even though both cantons were opposed to it.

The analysts come to the conclusion that “traditional gender norms have little influence on whether fathers take paternity leave more or less often. We even observe the opposite pattern. And in Latin Switzerland, where the tradition of paternity leave has been established for a longer time, the rate of fathers taking leave is lower than in German-speaking Switzerland.

An astonishing result which calls even more for equal family leave, as Lisa Mazzone further emphasizes: “If we want fathers to take their parental leave, a portion must be exclusively reserved for them”.