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American Lawyer Wonders Why More Men Don't Take Paternity Leave Days After Advising Lawyers Not To Take Parental Leave

These things may be connected.

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Consider this a new application of that classic slice of legalese, “asked and answered.”

In an article earlier this week, Vivia Chen wrote an interesting article pointing out that statistics show that men everywhere are turning down paternity leave, even as firms are increasingly expanding family leave policies to provide men with more opportunities to bond with a new child. Data collected in the UK paint a typically bleak picture when it comes to paternity leave usage:

Recent statistics suggest men aren’t jumping on the paternity leave wagon with enthusiasm. Here’s the news coming out of the U.K.: Less than one in three (31%) new fathers take paternity leave, reports The Independent, based on data from HMRC [Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs], collected by British law firm EMW Law.

Chen also points out that studies show that men who go on paternity leave are also less likely to want more kids and posits a theory for why men are keeping on the clock:

So staying home for an extended period of time to change diapers, clean up puke and cater to a fussy child isn’t what it’s cracked up to be? Ha!
…
I’m not quite sure what this all means, but it seems to suggests (again) that men aren’t quite as woke and evolved as we had hoped they’d be at this point in human evolution.

But tell me if I’m drawing the wrong conclusion.

You’re drawing the wrong conclusion.

And to back up that claim, one need look no further than Chen’s article from last Friday, “Take a Long Parental Leave and Make Partner? Dream On, Baby“:

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Though unlimited parental leave is still pretty rare, there’s evidence that people are unlikely to take extended vacations. A company “can safely offer bottomless holidays knowing most employees will never take them, especially in the U.S., [which is] the only major advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee workers paid vacation time,” writes Financial Times’ Pilita Clark, noting that “American workers took an average of 16.8 vacation days last year” and often don’t use up their vacation because of their fear of “returning to a mountain of work.”

And we all know how lawyers fear falling behind on work—which is what the profession is betting on. Pity, then, the poor fool who believes he or she can take those long, fabulous leaves and stay in good graces.

Repeat after me: Firms want to make moolah. And if you’re costing them moolah, you better move it.

This right here is why men aren’t taking paternity leave! As long as law firms aren’t viciously savaged — if not sued — for trampling on parents for having the audacity to be human beings then new parents will be heavily disincentivized to take their leave at all. Given that women have just been through a much more physically grueling experience and — if they choose to breastfeed — have reason to be physically close to the baby for its early months, the mother basically has to take leave and the father… doesn’t. So when making the rational decision as a family unit knowing that there’s a sentiment — so engrained in the machismo of the legal industry that it’s asserted as a no-brainer by the legal press — that attorneys all but deserve to have their careers derailed for taking leave, then dad’s going to be the one to keep working.

Until this mindset is thoroughly undermined by peer pressure, legal action, or guillotines, men just aren’t going to be taking advantage of paternity leave. Because let’s be very clear — poop and puke are always going to be better than doc review.

Rate of Men Taking Paternity Leave Falls—Again [American Lawyer]
Take a Long Parental Leave and Make Partner? Dream On, Baby [American Lawyer]

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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