SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Fathers with close connections to children more productive and happier, report finds

 

Fathers with close connections to their children live longer, have fewer health problems, and are more productive and generally happier but women continue to spend two to 10 times longer caring for children than men, according to a world first report.

Launched this week ahead of Father’s Day in the US this Sunday, the State of the World’s Fathers report found there is no country in the world in which men and boys have an equal share of unpaid domestic work with women and girls. This comes despite the fact that women make-up 40 per cent of the global workforce and 50 per cent of the world’s food producers.

FATHER AND CHILD: The State of the World’s Fathers report found between 61 and 77 per cent of fathers said they would work less if it meant they could spend more time with their children. PICTURE: Kuba Rola/www.freeimages.com

The report, which was launched by Chelsea Clinton on behalf of global fatherhood campaign MenCare, said that this imbalance has a range of negative effects, impacting the opportunities women have for work and gaining income, those girls have for education and holding back economies – it’s estimated that if women were able to participate in the labour market at the same rates as men, the gross domestic product of the US would increase by as much as five per cent, that of Japan by nine per cent and that of Egypt by 34 per cent.

The report found that many fathers around the world say they want to be more involved with their children – including in the US where 46 per cent of fathers said they wanted to spend more time with their children compared with 23 per cent of mothers – and that between 61 and 77 per cent of fathers would work less if that meant they could do so.

Having found that only 92 countries offer paternity leave for new fathers – and that in half of these the leave is less than three weeks, the report recommended that “equal, paid and non-transferable” parental leave programs be introduced in both public and private sectors around the world to “allow women”s equal participation in the labor force and men”s equal participation in unpaid care work”.

Other recommendations included that national and international action plans be created “to promote involved, non-violent fatherhood and men”s and boys” equal sharing of unpaid care work” and that the diversity of men”s caregiving be recognised and supported.

Nikki van der Gaag, one of the report’s authors, said that when fathers take on their “fair share” of unpaid care work, it releases women from some of their “double burden” and fathers “get to experience the joys, satisfactions, and stresses of caring for their children”.

“Taking up roles as caregivers also offers men the opportunity to break free from the narrow concepts of manhood and fatherhood, providing their sons and daughters with positive role models, improved health and development, and higher hopes for the future.”

The report said that about 80 per cent of the world’s males will become fathers.

~ http://sowf.men-care.org/

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.