GYTON GRANTLEY
ACTOR, FATHER OF ROCCO, 3,
AND SOHI, 3 MONTHS“Our son Rocco was born early, at
35 weeks, and was placed in the
special care ward. It was a traumatic
time. I wasn’t working in a production,
which was fortunate, as it was important
[that] I could be there as an emotional
support for [my wife] Alex.
Sohi was born on May 2. I’m now
performing in the Harry Potter stage
production and I’m contracted for a
year, so I have regular hours and a
regular schedule. While they don’t
grant paternal leave, we do get four
weeks of annual leave, so I took
two weeks of that leave to be at home.
I’m grateful to have been able to be
around for that time as I’m aware of how
exhausted my wife is. At the moment,
I’m doing a matinee and an evening
show for Harry Potter, but I don’t have to
get up every two hours and breastfeed
the baby in the middle of the night.
Right now, it’s all about us checking
in and being there for each other.(^54) | marieclaire.com.au
C
lementine and Tom were thrilled to be
expecting their first child. Both worked
at large law firms with generous Paid
Parental Leave (PPL) policies, so the
couple mapped out how they would
manage the adjustment to a
family of three. Clementine
would take six months off, Tom would take three
months and then they’d each work four days and ar-
range childcare. Clementine’s bosses approved her
request for six months’ parental leave on the spot. Yet
when Tom told his male boss he wanted to take three
months PPL, it was a different story. “We have that
policy, but no dads have actually used it,” he was told.
“It wouldn’t be good for your career.” Tom was
shocked. “The policy existed but the expectation was
clearly that mums take time off and effectively deal
with the babies while men keep on working,” he says.
For many Australian families, the male bread-
winner paradigm remains dominant, even in 2019. “The use of
parental leave by fathers and male partners in Australia is very
low by global standards,” CEO of Parents at Work Emma Walsh
says. “We lag [behind] the [rest of the] world on PPL. Not only
was Australia one of the last countries to introduce a policy, but
we currently offer one of the least generous schemes.” In the UK,
parents receive 39 weeks of full-time pay from the government;
in Canada it’s 35 weeks. In Australia, “primary” carers are enti-
tled to 18 weeks’ pay (minimum wage) while “secondary” carers
get two weeks of “Dad and Partner Pay.” Only one in 20 dads
take primary parental leave according to the Australian Bureau
of Statistics, while a Human Rights Commission study revealed
85 per cent of Australian fathers and partners took
less than four weeks’ leave on their baby’s arrival.
Walsh says dividing the roles of parents into
“primary” and “secondary”, as Australia does, is
emblematic of an outdated approach that reinforc-
es the ‘breadwinner/homemaker’ gender divide.
Because the government-funded Dad and Partner
Pay is limited to two weeks, Walsh says fathers
often have to rely on their employers to pay for
additional time off. “But most employers provide
limited parental leave for secondary carers and, as
a result, Australian dads often don’t have time off
when their baby is born, or a minimal amount if
they do,” she explains.
Even when dads do have access to paid primary carer’s
leave, uptake is low. “It’s where the cultural and social stigmas
come in – ‘it’s a woman’s job to care for the kids,’” Walsh says.
The outcome? Mothers are literally left holding the baby.
Timothy Walker took three weeks’ leave from his job as
an economic consultant when he and his partner Christina
Chun first welcomed daughter Harriet in March 2018. Once
ONLY 5%
OF DADS
TAKE PAID
PARENTAL
LEAVE