Mothers celebrate fathers with extended parental leave – 05/13/2023 – Market

“I imagined that I would have to wake up alone at night to breastfeed, because I would need to spare him, since he was going to work the next day”, says businesswoman Andreza Almeida Dyonisio, 37, referring to her husband, Felipe Rocha, 36, manager of Rhodia Brasil sales and marketing. “But he gets up with me whenever she cries and some of the time he gives me the bottle so I can get some rest,” she says.

Little Cecília arrived in the world about 20 days ago, causing a “revolution” not only in the mother’s life, as is the custom among babies. Her father’s life was also transformed, in addition to the traditional five days of paid leave provided for by Brazilian law. Rocha’s company adopts extended paternity leave, which gives fathers a paid break of up to four months to care for the newborn.

That’s what will allow Andreza, owner of a clothing store, to return to work ahead of schedule. “Since we decided to have a child, I knew that Felipe would be a present father, because it was his dream”, she says. “I thought, however, that my motherhood was more solitary, perhaps with my mother’s help. But he is participating in everything, seeing her development, sharing the perrengues of the day and night, experiencing fatherhood in its entirety.”

While Brazilian law requires women to take a 120-day leave of absence when they become mothers, men who become fathers have five consecutive days. From 2021, the company that opts for the Empresa Cidadã program can extend maternity leave to 180 days, and paternity leave to 20, with the deduction of this extension in the Income Tax.

The extension of the period of maternity leave (which is now called parental leave) can be divided between mothers and fathers, provided that both work in companies that participate in Empresa Cidadã.

Despite the government incentive, the number of citizen companies is still insignificant: around 26 thousand, according to the most recent survey by the Federal Revenue Service, in July 2022. Almost nothing compared to the 20.2 million companies registered in the country at the end of the last year, according to the Ministry of Economy.

Some Brazilian branches of large multinationals such as Rhodia (controlled by the Solvay group), Haleon (manufacturer of the antacid Eno), Sanofi (owner of the Medley brand of medicines) and Corteva (producer of seeds and pesticides) have been investing in extended paid parental leave, paying the benefit on account. They follow the assumptions of the respective matrices, which consider paid leave for parents a tool to promote gender equality.

“It is clear that companies need to make the account close”, says Edna Bedani, professor in the area of ​​leadership and careers at ESPM and vice-president of the deliberative council of ABRH-SP (Brazilian Association of Human Resources of São Paulo). According to her, it is possible that in some cases the remuneration starts at 100%, and then is negotiated at 90% or 80% of the salary in the following months.

“But, in general, these companies are aware that the benefit contributes to increasing diversity and the consequent richness of ideas, since more people on leave require an internal rearrangement – ​​and the places are now occupied by women or professionals more old people, for example”, he says. “In addition, they achieve greater employee engagement, increase talent retention and improve your reputation in society.”

A survey carried out by the American study center Peterson Institute for International Economics points out that equal parental leave is capable of increasing the participation of women in leadership positions.

According to the study “Women scaling the corporate ladder: Progress steady but slow globally”, released in 2020, at the current pace of change, it would take more than a generation for women achieve gender parity –25 years for women in the same proportion of director positions and 31 years for the same proportion of executive positions.

Female CEOs, however, would remain extremely rare for years to come and would only come close to equality with men in 2063.

According to the survey, there are two major factors that lead to this inequality. First is training: girls need to be encouraged to pursue careers in areas such as business, economics and accounting, so that they can reach leadership positions in business and even in public life.

Second, there is the divergence in the careers of men and women after children arrive. The survey shows that paternity leave, along with a support network focused on childcare, is capable of shortening the period in which mothers leave the workforce and facilitating their reintegration into the labor market. With the need for a smaller career break on their part, paternity leave also contributes to reducing the wage gap between men and women.

“It’s my Mother’s Day gift”, jokes speech therapist Ana Luíza Ferraz, 35, married to Haleon’s marketing manager in Brazil, Otávio Queiroz Ferraz, who is taking a paid leave of six months after Pedro’s birth, two months ago. The two are already parents to Rafael, 5.

“It’s been a very different experience from the first pregnancy. Otávio is together, he can share the responsibility of creating from the very beginning. It’s incredible, especially because he can participate more in the activities of the older one”, she says, who, as liberal professional, feels more comfortable to return to work as soon as possible. “His presence helps me a lot, I don’t feel so overwhelmed in those first months, when we wake up too much.”

For Otávio Ferraz it is also transforming. “As a manager, I didn’t quite understand a certain insecurity of female employees when they went on maternity leave, in relation to what their return would be like. Now I’m experiencing this anxiety, but I know that I come back better than I was”, he says.

Felipe Rocha insisted on changing his identification on the LinkedIn professional network: now his first and most important function is to be “Cecília’s father”. “Cecília is my most difficult client to negotiate. When she wants it, it’s right away”, he says, who was terrified with the first shower, was surprised by the number of hiccups and argued with his wife about the best way to change the diapers. “But anything goes to ensure that this bond is eternal.”

A report published in March this year by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), entitled “Joining forces for gender equality: what is stopping us?”, reveals that many member countries of the group have improved their paid leave policies for countries in recent years – although the only one that has equalized the benefit for men and women has been Spain.

In some, like Denmark, the experience was not so inspiring: men began to use their free time to study an MBA.

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