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Every time I went to my male boss, he would give a sly look at my pregnant tummy and say: “I wish I were a woman.” The first time he said, I couldn’t believe what he was saying, but I understood his intention later. “Which man has the luxury to get a six-month paid leave?” he would say, underlining the fact that I am having that ‘privilege’ for the second time.
Is maternity leave really a time to lie back, and rejoice? And why should men feel that the facility is a charity being done on their female colleagues, who just spend their time in office until it is time to take the break and then chill for six months or probably more?
As one of the 16 countries that provide the longest paid leaves for new moms, India now allows for 26 weeks in the private sector. And, if you believe that the government has done this without considering the interests of the employers, then you would be wrong.
Here are a few reasons why maternity leave need not necessarily be a great benefit to women at the cost of men:
- Beneficial to the employer: Extending the parental leave from 12 to 26 weeks might sound like a fair treatment of women. You might swear by your employer. You would want to return and be associated with them for long. Also, you might recommend others to join your organization for the liberal policy around paid maternity leaves. A good employee attraction and retention strategy, is it not?
- Not a burden on the company: Earlier this year, Donald Trump stated that pregnancy can be an ‘inconvenience’ to business. He praised his daughter Ivanka for joining him in campaigning in just five days after she had her baby. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took just about two weeks break after her pregnancy, and was hugely criticized for this.If pregnancy were an inconvenience, we wouldn’t have had female employees anywhere at all. And why maternity leave, women have to take leave once a month if their periods are difficult to manage.Wouldn’t the corporate world have thought about it before opening their gates to women and men alike? Are they so naive that they do not know the problems with women?
- Their growth is gone: How often have we not seen a female employee being deprived of her promotion because she is in family way? “You would have got promoted but for your pregnancy,” the manager would tell you. I am pregnant, ok, but did that affect my performance in anyway? And would you retain me if I performed poorly? “Let’s see after you come back from your leave,” is how that conversation usually ends.
- Men have those leaves too: If maternity leave were such a waste, what do you call the paternity leave? A bigger waste because there is hardly anything to do for the new father as the baby cannot be taken away from the mother and he need not yet change the baby’s nappies? The idea behind this leave is to enable the father to bond with his newborn. As women, we pretty well understand how important that is, and so have you ever heard a woman crib about her colleague’s paternity leave?
- Women don’t have fun during ML: Contrary to the belief, maternity leave is not a time for women to pursue their hobby, or just chill at home. In fact, going to work is far easier than nurturing a delicate little one when your body itself is very fragile.
At the risk of sounding clichéd, just imagine a swap of the roles…. men having their ‘maternity leaves’ and women cribbing about it. How blasphemos would that be!
