EXCERPTS:
In the debate over which party has the most vote-worthy parental leave scheme, the role of fathers has been largely ignored.
The focus has been instead on how much parents - usually mothers - should be paid for time spent out of the workforce caring for very young babies.
This is an important (and long overdue) conversation. Yet it should not obscure more nuanced discussion about how parental leave might better contribute to gender equity - how it might assist both men and women to better balance work and family life.
Dads or partners are currently entitled to two weeks paternity leave at the minimum wage - usually taken in the first weeks of a baby's life.
Under a Coalition Government this leave would be paid at full replacement wages.
Fathers can also take up to one year unpaid parental leave; yet in Australia only a small percentage of men make use of this entitlement.
There are a number of reasons why most men rarely take significant time out from work in order to care for their children.
Perhaps the most pervasive factor is the traditional view that women are inherently better suited for the role of child rearing. Yet once breast-feeding is no longer part of the equation, there is no reason why fathers aren't equally able to assume responsibility for the domestic duties involved in raising a family.
This lingering view of 'caring as women's work' means that many men also fear - and would likely experience - discrimination at work if they take time out or request flexible working arrangements in order to share responsibility for child care.
Men worry that they will be perceived as less ambitious and less reliable if they explicitly prioritise family life for a period of time. For women, this outlook is expected and therefore more likely to be accommodated.
Many couples also decide that mothers will be the ones to stay at home based on purely practical reasons. Women typically earn less than men, so it makes financial sense not to sacrifice the bigger wage.
This feeds into a cycle whereby women who take time off advance less quickly than men who don't, with the result that mothers will continue to be the ones to stay at home.
If taking parental leave is to become a more realistic choice for more men, the cultural legacies that currently act as serious disincentives must be addressed. Merely adjusting the amount of paid leave available in the immediate post-natal period is unlikely to deliver rapid change.
In many European countries, gender equity has figured as a much more prominent goal in the development of parental leave systems.
In countries such as Iceland, Portugal and Sweden, the introduction of non-transferrable parental leave - 'daddy' months - has led to significant increases in the number of fathers taking time out to care for children.
Some countries also offer incentives to couples who share parental leave entitlements. In Germany, for example, the parental leave period is extended when fathers take at least two months off, while both Portugal and Sweden offer financial bonuses.
In Australia, we are yet to consider more progressive approaches to parental leave. In fact, the Coalition's proposal to peg leave to the mother's wage is based on the assumption that women should be the ones to stay home.
In the early months of a child's life this arrangement makes sense for most couples. But if we introduce such a scheme without considering the impacts on longer-term childcare arrangements, it is likely to reinforce traditional gender roles.
Our parental leave system might provide a fairer reward for the work involved in raising a child. It might also enable more women to stay connected to the workforce.
But the options currently on the table mean that women will continue to work in lower paid jobs while taking on a larger share of domestic duties.
At the same time, fathers will continue to miss out on the privilege of spending time solely dedicated to family life. And more fathers are realising what this means.
-reprinted from the Drum