Working fathers should be allowed to 'step up' at home
A former UK headteacher has called for fairer delegation of family duties between working parents and better support by employers for both fathers and mothers.
- New research shows extent of workplace ‘parenthood penalty’
- 72% of globally mobile people unhappy with work-life balance
- Flexible Working Taskforce gets underway
Ms Farr, who retired from teaching in 2017, explained how she would often see working mothers taking their children to routine GP appointments, but rarely working fathers. She went on to criticise businesses for not having better policies for working parents and that it was “a damning reflection on Britain that so few fathers took shared parental leave.” According to a study by the TUC, only 1% of new parents used the Government's shared parental leave scheme in 2018; 9,200 took shared parental leave out of 900,000 who were eligible.
The benefits for family-friendly employers
British businesses would be expedient to encourage family-friendly working practices, due to the power of flexible working as a tool to attract and retain staff, particularly Gen Y talent. The Index report found that 58% of people said a flexible employer would positively encourage employees to stay; while 51% said they would recommend an employer because of their family-friendly policies.Ms Farr believes that male chief executives can take key skills from parenting young children, such as negotiating with a toddler, and use them in their working life. In her latest book The Making of Her: Why School Matters, which is to be published in August, Ms Farr considers important issues in the UK education system, such as the challenges facing students and their teachers today; the role of a school in a modern, virtual world; and how do we educate girls to become tomorrow’s leaders?For more news and insight, please visit our Partner & Family Support pages.Subscribe to Relocate Extra, our monthly newsletter, to get all the latest international assignments and global mobility news.Relocate’s new Global Mobility Toolkit provides free information, practical advice and support for HR, global mobility managers and global teams operating overseas.
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