The percentage of those fathers who take advantage of maternity leave in Israel is among the lowest in the OECD; only 1% of fathers exercise their privilege. According to Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg’s proposal, rather than extend maternity leave for mothers, men will be required to take at least two weeks of maternity leave, and the total number of weeks on paid leave for both sexes together will total 24 weeks rather than 15 weeks as is the case today.
On the FM 103 radio program of Yinon Magal and Ben Caspit, Ron Leyzer, a Samuel Neaman Institute researcher on gender economics, was interviewed. Leyzer explained the motivation behind this initiative: “Today, women are compelled to take maternity leave”. According to Leyzer, the Israeli model lags behind the rest of the world and works against the best interests of the infant, the parents and the economy.
This research was done at the S. Neaman Institute. The Israeli model in force today lags behind the rest of the world. It is narrow, inflexible and does not place the wellbeing of the infant or the economy at its core. Expanding the various possibilities for the parents means that if the mother desires to remain at home for 15 weeks, she can do that even after the proposed reform. The most important change proposed is to require fathers to take two weeks of leave.
“There are several reasons for this. The idea is for the father’s maternity leave to occur right at the onset of the reform, in order to change the social norm of fathers and employers — fathers may want to take maternity leave but face employers’ opposition.”
