Men's "paternity leave" is too short and it is recommended to extend it with pay

During the two sessions, the suggestion that men be forced to take a month’s maternity leave with women was a hot topic, sparking heated discussions among netizens about paternity leave. Some netizens expressed strong support for paternity leave, believing that the current maternity leave arrangements are unreasonable and represent widowed parenting. If we want to increase the fertility rate, we must reduce women's concerns about childbirth and childcare in terms of child support, career development, etc.

With the implementation of the three-child policy, maternity leave has been extended in various places, ranging from more than a hundred days to a year. For employers, the increased costs are mainly salary costs and replacement labor costs during the extended period of maternity-related leave. On the one hand, maternity allowances cannot cover all female employees’ wages during their maternity leave; on the other hand, if employees are away from work for a long time, employers need to arrange for other employees to share the work or increase manpower, which requires increased wage expenditures.

Feng Danlong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and senior consultant to Pfizer China, said: "This is likely to lead to companies choosing to reduce recruitment of women."

Extended maternity leave has become a "barrier" for women's career development. Roadblock"? Has the hidden threshold for women’s employment been raised? Yang Yuanqing, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, said that increasing the number of paternity leave days for men can reduce employment discrimination against women. Raising children is the equal responsibility of both men and women. Many committee members recommended extending paid "paternity leave" and implementing an equal leave system for men and women so that both men and women can shoulder the same responsibility.

Feng Danlong suggested implementing the same-sex marriage policy and establishing a fertility reward system. "It only takes about a month for a woman's body to recover after giving birth. The rest of the vacation is mainly spent accompanying her children as they grow up. However, accompanying and taking care of children is not the exclusive domain of women. Men can do it as well," Feng Danlong said.

Jiang Shengnan, a deputy to the National People's Congress, a researcher at Wenzhou University, and a writer, believes that the current regulations on maternity and paternity leave mainly focus on increasing women's leave, exacerbating the negative impact of childbirth on women's employment, and need to be improved as soon as possible. It is recommended to increase men’s paid paternity leave to 30-42 days. This is based on the fact that women’s puerperium period is 42 days, which is a period when they are in great need of care from their spouse.

Lei Houxing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and honorary president of Zhejiang Lishui Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, suggested innovating a system for couples to enjoy maternity leave, with both parties negotiating to determine the number of days of their respective leave. For example, the 98-day national statutory maternity leave is enjoyed by the woman, and the additional N days (different places) of leave are enjoyed by both parties. If the woman takes A days off, the man will take N-A days more on top of the statutory paternity leave.

In fact, the "maternity leave" and "paternity leave" systems still need to be improved, and "paternity leave" is even a vague concept in the consciousness of many people. During the two sessions, deputies once again put forward suggestions from various aspects on the "maternity leave" and "paternity leave" systems, which also demonstrated their importance. Whether "maternity leave" or "paternity leave" is not a trivial matter that can be talked about and dismissed, but a major matter whether the basic leave rights of ordinary workers can be protected, or even to ease family pressure on childbirth and improve maternity insurance. Institutional matters.

(Song Xinyu reported by Comprehensive Workers Daily, China Women's Network, Guangming.com, Beiqing.com, Hegong News Network, and Yunnan.com)