Families need parental leave for fathers as much as for mothers

While women have made significant headway when it comes professional equality, a shift of a similar magnitude hasn’t happened on the home front: Traditional gender roles persist at home, despite many couples’ best efforts to divide the work more equally. Men who take on the role of primary caregiver are often stigmatized rather than lauded. For gender equality to work, men need to take on these roles as often and as enthusiastically as women do. But that’s been a slow transition. Fear, time and stigma play a big part in preventing men from making the effort necessary to learn how to be a child’s main caretaker. Getting comfortable in the role of caregiver is huge not just for parental confidence, but for families as a whole.