Dear Workplaces & Society. Here are 2 opportunities for better gender equality

Shining a spotlight this International Women’s Day 2024.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕.

What’s going well?

More than 3 in 5 Australian employers are now offering paid parental leave, the vast majority of those making paid leave equally available for both parents. Workplaces are beginning to normalise men taking time out of the workforce to share the care for their children. When men take parental leave, we know households establish more equitable divisions of unpaid work and care.

What’s not going as well?

While paid primary carer’s leave is becoming increasingly available to both men and women, only 14% of those who take it are men. (WGEA 2024)

What does this mean?

No real change until we value the work (and let’s not forget the reward) of caring for our children. The greatest losers in this, our kids. Who also deserve equality of time shared with both parents.

What are our opportunities?

1.Create a flexible pathway to seniority for ALL. Breaking gender stereotypes at work and home. Re-thinking what flexible can look like for men and women. Not being stifled by measurements of availability, but rather by quality outputs. Inspired by a culture of care that is our driver of optimal performance at work and home.

2.Encourage and support male interns, male managers, male senior managers, male executives to take the care leave, and to work flexibly. Then to share loudly what male’s careers & families have gained from the opportunity. Helping to publicly discredit the fear that career progression or reputation will be penalised.

Fast forward a generation, and our grandchildren have parents who might just be able to take 50:50 paid primary parental leave. And the greatest winners now? Everyone. Our kids, men and women.

The opportunity is already here. Mums, Dads, Workplaces, Government…It is in ALL our hands to take forwards at speed.

#ThrivingWorkingParents #IWD2024 #PaidParentalLeave #Flexibility #ForALL

Poppy Griffiths is a professional high performance coach and Director of UnlimitU a high-performance coaching consultancy, which supports the inclusion of working parents, women in leadership and the mental wellbeing of teams. If you are interested in private or organisational coaching, group coaching workshops, or a high energy keynote, please get in touch. poppy@unlimitu.com.au