‘Not fit for purpose’: Exploring the barriers and benefits of extending paternity leave

When statutory paternity leave was introduced in 2003 it was hailed as a progressive step towards gender equality.

More than two decades later the UK has “fallen far behind” many comparable countries to the point where we have “one of the worst leave offers in the developed world”, according to the Women and Equalities Committee.

“A maximum of two weeks paternity leave is completely out of step with how most couples want to share their parenting responsibilities and balance these with working life,” the committee wrote in its Equality at Work report published in June.

“Our system entrenches outdated gender stereotypes about caring and harms fathers, mothers and families. The system requires substantial change.”

As it stands, fathers can take two weeks leave at £187.18 a week or 90% of their average earnings, whichever is lower. The report recommends statutory paternity leave should be extended to six weeks at 90% pay by the end of the Parliament in 2029, bringing self-employed people into the system.

This is the “absolute bare minimum” and still well below the European average, argues The Dad Shift co-founder Alex Lloyd Hunter, who describes the current system as “broken”.

I got called a loser. Got told it was career suicide. Got asked: ‘What the hell is your wife doing?’

Lee Chambers, Male Allies UK

Campaigning for better paternity leave, The Dad Shift held the world’s first DadStrike last month, which saw parents picket government buildings in London and Edinburgh in protest.

“There hasn’t been action, but that’s a political inaction problem, not a public opinion problem. All the evidence we see is attitudes really have shifted around this. Some 90% of fathers say dads have got to be a bigger part of their kids’ lives. Across age, gender, political affiliation, 86% agree it’s better when both parents have opportunities to be equally involved in childcare,” says Lloyd Hunter.

“We’ve moved past this 1950s idea about what parenting means, but our systems haven’t.”

While improving paternity leave is no “silver bullet”, he describes it as “one of the biggest factors” in closing the gender pay gap. Indeed, a 2021 OECD report found the motherhood penalty accounts for 75% of the gender pay gap in Northern and Western European countries like the UK.

Marketing Week’s own 2025 Career & Salary Survey data finds female marketers are paid on average 17.8% less than their male peers, up on the 16% pay gap revealed in 2024.

“Paternity leave is, in a way, the original sin, because imagine you’ve got your two weeks [leave] at the beginning and you’re really hands on. You’re changing nappies, you’re supporting your partner through breastfeeding. You’re starting to bond and then you’re gone,” says Lloyd Hunter.

“Then over the next nine to 12 months things are changing and you’re not learning how to do certain things. The child is always with their mother, so they’re bonding with their mother more. You get to the end of that year and you’re looking at childcare costs, maybe as much as one of your salaries, and your employers won’t let you work flexibly. One of you has got to step back from work and, of course, that’s almost always the mother.”

Data clearly shows giving fathers longer leave improves the situation for mothers. Countries offering at least six weeks paternity leave at 90% pay have on average a four-percentage point smaller gender pay gap, according to data from the Centre for Progressive Policy and Pregnant Then Screwed.

This insight supports 2010 research by the Swedish government, which found each additional month a father stays on paternity leave a mother’s earnings increase by 6.7%.

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There should be dedicated leave for fathers which isn’t taken from the mother’s allocation, Lloyd Hunter argues, as is the case with shared parental leave. He points to government statistics showing just 2% of fathers have benefitted from shared parental leave since it launched in 2015.

“The coalition government that brought in shared parental leave in 2015 put all their eggs in that basket and said: ‘This is how we’re going to improve the system,’” he states.

“On paper it sounds great. It’s egalitarian. It allows couples to, in theory, do things effectively and decide what works for them. But in practice it really has not worked.”

The rest of Europe has moved significantly faster towards equalising parental leave. Norway introduced four weeks non-transferable leave and pay for fathers back in 1993. Today, Norwegian fathers can take 46 weeks of parental leave at full pay or 56 weeks at 80%. In Spain, incremental improvements over recent years mean fathers now get 16 weeks statutory leave at full pay.

“[Spanish] fathers take 15 out of 16 weeks on average. Everyone is using it because it’s properly paid and because it’s universal,” Lloyd Hunter notes.

“Inevitably what comes out of that shift, where suddenly almost every man is taking 15, 16 weeks off, is that it’s normal. That shifts attitudes, that shifts culture.”

‘Career suicide’

Despite consensus building around increasing statutory paternity leave, many men still don’t feel able to take the two weeks currently on offer. Over two-fifths (43%) of fathers in a 2023 survey by the Centre for Progressive Policy cited financial hardship as a reason for not taking their full allocation.

The issues are not solely financial. Some 17% of fathers who did not take either statutory or enhanced leave in full felt pressure from their employer and 13% returned early due to fear of missing out on progression.

“I’ve spoken to men who have taken extended shared parental, they’ve come back and all their clients have been assigned to someone else, and the job has changed when they’ve been off,” explains Lee Chambers, business psychologist, male allyship specialist and founder of Male Allies UK.

“So many of the things that we hear from women are happening to men if they take that extended time. They start being given safe projects rather than stretch projects. That goes for women as well. So that means some men end up taking [leave] in little itty bits so they don’t get impacted, but then that impacts the autonomy of their partner.”

We’ve moved past this 1950s idea about what parenting means, but our systems haven’t.

Alex Lloyd Hunter, The Dad Shift

Chambers ran a tech business, became ill and had to learn to walk again, after which time he decided to become a stay-at-home dad to his two young children. While some people praised his decision and saw Chambers as a role model, the reaction from others was nothing short of abuse.

“I got called a loser. Got told it was career suicide. Got asked: ‘What the hell is your wife doing?’ Also got told: ‘You’ll get bored mate, you’ll be back in two weeks,’” he recalls.

Chambers is by no means alone. Anecdotally, he has spoken to senior female leaders whose partners took on a larger share of the childcare and were asked: ‘When are you going to go and get a real job?’

The only father in the room at local baby and toddler groups, Chambers recalls speaking to mothers and grandmothers, and realising every single woman had a story. It was the catalyst to introduce shared parental leave in his own company. Chambers later sold the business to a Danish firm and conversations with his contemporary in Denmark highlighted some stark differences.

“He said: ‘If I don’t take my four months [leave] as a man, we lose it. And if I don’t take it, I get judged as a leader who doesn’t care. As a leader who is a liability. As a leader who isn’t interested in investing in talent or the next generation,’” he says.

“Because of how things are structured there, if you don’t take your leave as a man, you’re the strange one. Whereas here, if you do take it, you’re the strange one.”

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With the notion caregiving should default to the mother so “deeply ingrained” in UK society, Chambers is passionate about opening up parental leave to give women a choice over where to focus their energy.

“That might be into motherhood for a period, into career for a period, into recovery for a period. Into floating, coasting just to re-energise because the mental load is significant, but women would have autonomy to choose instead of everything just defaulting to them,” he states.

Chambers didn’t set out to be a role model. However, the men he knows who have taken enhanced leave in many cases did so because they saw someone senior take it, which provides that “inferred permission”.

“I’m very passionate about the difference in organisational culture when men can give loudly and leave loudly,” he explains.

“When they say: ‘I’m going to watch my daughter’s sports day, that’s why I’m not in the office this morning. I’m leaving to pick my daughter up from a swimming lesson and that’s where I’m going. I can’t take this client call at 6.30pm. Ask them to move to 8.30pm when she’s in bed.”

In the pressure cooker

Encouraging men to be curious about caregiving and not put off by any sense of stigma is a key goal for Chambers, who points out that often the loudest dissenting voices are those men who regret not taking leave themselves.

The more men who take extended leave, the easier it will be to connect with other fathers and build a sense of community. From a mental health perspective, two weeks leave is not “fit for purpose”, Chambers argues. Many men repress their feelings of birth trauma, for example, and end up leaving their employer months down the line after not being supported.

“If you are pushed back into work quickly, work just becomes a mask to put over that stuff and it comes back to bite you at some point. When leave is short work can be used as a distraction instead of a support and that’s something I’ve heard from men I’ve spoken to,” he explains.

From a maternal mental health perspective, fathers returning two weeks postpartum is exactly the moment mothers are most at risk of post-natal depression, Lloyd Hunter points out. The Dad Shift has heard heartbreaking stories of the impact on mothers, including women who have ruptured their C-section wounds because they were left alone too soon.

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Lloyd Hunter rejects the “complete fantasy” that fathers can return to work fully productive and present after two weeks leave. Research from The Dad Shift and charity Movember earlier this year found 45% of new fathers experience multiple symptoms of post-natal depression in the first year, higher than previous estimates. Crucially, 82% say the most significant thing the government could do to help is offer better paternity leave.

“You’re back into this pressure cooker where your bills have suddenly gone through the roof, because a child is expensive. Your partner’s not earning, so you’ve got to keep the family afloat financially. But also, you want to be present for your partner and your child,” he says.

“Your boss doesn’t understand what’s going on, so they’re pushing you as hard as ever. Inevitably, that can break people and that’s not good for the employer.”

Formerly a small business owner, Lloyd Hunter introduced six weeks paternity leave at his company to support his employees’ long-term health and ensure they weren’t back doing client facing work when they weren’t ready.

Aside from protecting employee mental health, there are clear economic upsides to businesses from an overhaul of paternity leave. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates extending statutory paternity leave to six weeks at 90% pay could deliver £2.68bn to the wider economy.

“The reality is that having bad paternity leave is bad for business,” Lloyd Hunter argues. “That is why you’re seeing more companies stepping up and offering enhanced paternity leave. They are typically bigger companies that can afford it and that’s why we need statutory action so everyone can keep up.”

Having introduced extended leave in his own firm, Chambers welcomes other companies improving their offer. However, the next step is for leaders to enable those policies to be taken without “retribution or judgement”. While offering extended leave can prove more of a challenge for smaller businesses, he argues any brand making the change will “transform” their culture as a result.

Look out for a second piece exploring the experience of working fathers who have taken extended leave coming soon.