Here's a new study on the British parental leave system ( BBC, 7/14/09). Unsurprisingly, it finds that the U.K.'s system of paid parental leave encourages women to stay at home with the kids and fathers to return to work following the birth of a child. Current leave policy provides mothers six months of paid leave, but fathers only two weeks. By the standards of continental Europe, that's generous toward women and parsimonious toward men. And of course it promotes traditional male/female
CareerBuilder.com has come out with a new study on fathers and the work/family balance. Although this article on the study is deceptively headlined, it's still worth a read ( CNN , 6/22/09). The title of the piece reads, Poll: Fewer Fathers Want to be Stay-at-Home Dads. That's technically true, but misleading. In fact, all it reveals is that, with the calamitous drop in men's employment, fewer men are willing to risk taking time off from work to be at home with the kids. That's nothing
