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Gender-neutral paid family leave is the way we break patriarchal norms
🗓 🏠 Gender-neutral paid family leave is the way we break patriarchal norms
🗣 Calls for extended paid maternity leave often stir up counterarguments, such as “it’s unfair for people who don’t have kids,” or “how would it affect the company’s productivity?”. However, what seems to be left out of the picture is the women workers, children, and families affected by inadequate leave time.
💼 Even though parental leave serves more purposes than being a recovery period for childbirth, in Thailand, it is exclusively granted to women, and they are expected to carry most of the child-bearing responsibility. Partly because of this, female job candidates are often viewed as less favorable than their male counterparts.
📋 That’s why it’s common to see employers in Thailand still asking women if they plan to have children or if they are in a committed relationship. Many times, female candidates are rejected or offered a lower wage only because of their potential as mothers.
👩👩👦 Not only is there an urgent need for longer and more flexible maternity leave, but we must also fight to distribute child care duties fairly among women, men, and the state. If we do not dismantle gender roles by encouraging men to be more involved as fathers and expand state and company’s support for child care, women will continue to be the ones bearing the brunt.
#WeAreManushyan ∞ Equal Human Beings
✊ Manushya Foundation calls for gender-neutral paid family leave and adequate child care support to be provided equally for all workers in Thailand, including LGBTIQ+ and alternative forms of families. Women should not have to choose between their career and family, and everyone deserves a right to raise their children in a healthy, humane way.