David Quinn
Mothers and fathers are different and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, writes David Quinn
This is a very strange and contradictory Government. On the one hand it is preparing a new law that will allow a couple not to record themselves on a birth certificate as the mother and father of their child. They can record themselves simply as ‘parents’.
This would seem to mean that the Government sees no special value in the separate and distinct roles of mothers and fathers, and even is willing to see birth certs erase the basic fact that no child can come into existence without a mother and a father. This new law, an update to the Civil Registration Act, is being advanced by the Department of Social Protection, which is headed by Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty.
On the other hand, this same Department and this same Minister has just announced additional paid parental leave, on top of recently introduced paternity benefit, the aim of which is to encourage new fathers to spend more time at home with their children.
Announcing the measure last week, Minister Doherty said: “The evidence shows that when fathers take a more significant and meaningful share in the parenting of their children the individual family benefits.”
Natural ties
During the same-sex marriage referendum of 2015, we were told the sex of a child’s parents didn’t matter. We were also told that the natural ties didn’t matter. We were told ‘all a child needs is love’. But if this is so, then why is a Government Minister now saying that “the individual family benefits” when fathers “take a more significant and meaning share in the parenting of their children”.
Why the seeming volte face by the Government? Can it be that they have suddenly returned to the traditional, common sense view that men and women are different and so are mothers and fathers? It would be nice to think so, but every other piece of evidence suggests otherwise because its radical overhaul of family law continues. What it is doing to birth certs is only one example. So are its plans for the assisted human reproduction industry.
Almost no value is given to the natural ties in those plans, and none at all is attached to the value to a child of having its own mother and father, or any mother and father.
So why is the Government now so keen on new fathers giving up work for a few weeks in the first year of a child’s life?
The reason is almost certainly because of a desire to close the gender pay gap. The gap between the average amount of money a man earns and the average amount a woman earns is largely explained by motherhood. It is not really a gender gap at all but a motherhood one, because the pay gap doesn’t really exist among young, childless men and women.
It appears when women become mothers and take breaks from their careers. Men take almost no time off when they become fathers. This means the careers of mothers suffer, where those of men do not.
If mothers and fathers can be somehow induced, or even forced, to take equal amounts of time off work, then the pay gap would close. So goes the theory anyhow, and it has something to be said for it assuming mothers and fathers actually want to work the same number of hours and in the same kinds of demanding (or undemanding) jobs. That is a very big if.
A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute looks at this very issue. The authors find that “women place greater value than men on jobs that are close to home and offer good security, and those job preferences are associated with lower wages”.
Despite this finding, the authors still won’t concede that the above difference might be the result of different natural preferences between men and women. They think the difference could be the result of social norms and expectations, namely that women are expected to spend more time than men looking after children. Change those expectations, and then men might spend as much if not more time minding children and then, at last, the gender pay gap will vanish.
When it was pointed out to Regina Doherty that one reason few enough men have taken up paternity leave is because the amount the State pays them is so low (€245 per week), she got annoyed.
Men on paternity leave receive the same as women on maternity leave. As she correctly pointed out, this hasn’t stopped lots more women than men taking time off work.
About 60,000 babies are born in Ireland each year. More than 40,000 women per annum apply for paid maternity leave which lasts for six months. Only 24,000 or so men take up paternity leave which lasts for only a fortnight. How many families could afford to lose the best part of two incomes for six months?
So, is a world in which mothers and fathers take equal amounts of time off work to mind children either achievable or desirable?
This largely depends on what men and women really want, and what is best for children. Many mothers prefer to breastfeed their babies, for example. Men obviously cannot do that. This is likely to result in a permanent difference in the amount of time men and women take off when their children are very young.
Countries like Sweden have gone as far down the gender equality road as any country in history, and even in Sweden a gender pay gap of roughly 14% exists, about the same as here in Ireland. One reason it continues to exist is that women still take longer career breaks than men and are a lot more likely to be in part-time work, again, just like here in Ireland.
Government policy has to be a response to what parents actually want, rather than an attempt at social engineering which will waste resources and only frustrate people.
By all means, offer men a bit more parental leave, but don’t expect too much of a change in male and female parenting choices as a result.