By Martha Moss - 16th April 2009
This proposal on paternity leave is necessary to reach work-life balance. Without work-life balance we can't achieve gender equality
Edite Estrela
Plans to increase maternity leave and introduce paternity leave provisions will help women achieve a better work-life balance and "indirectly" increase female participation in higher positions, according to Edite Estrela.
The Socialist MEP's report, proposing to increase minimum maternity leave to 20 weeks with six weeks at full pay, was adopted by parliament's women's rights and gender equality committee on Thursday.
The report also called on member states to provide for a minimum of two weeks paternity leave, a central measure for Estrela, who is the vice chair of the women's rights committee.
Under the measures, mothers will have more protection against unfair dismissal when they return to work after giving birth, with employers required to prove that dismissal within 12 months of maternity leave is not discriminatory.
Estrela told TheParliament.com, "I introduced a new concept of paternity leave because I think it's very important for women and men to share parental responsibilities. For me it was the key question."
Parliament is co-legislator on the issue, along with the EU's 27 member states. Estrela said she was "quite optimistic" about the progress of the directive, which will be debated and voted on in plenary during parliament's next Strasbourg session on 5 and 6 May.
She said she had reached agreement with the Liberals and Greens, but the EPP were split, with some in agreement but others likely to vote against. "It's not possible to reach an agreement with the EPP but with the others it's enough," she said.
"This proposal on paternity leave is necessary to reach work-life balance. Without work-life balance we can't achieve gender equality," she added.
Warning that women found it difficult to "break the glass ceiling at the high level", she said there was not enough female representation in political or economic life.
"So we need to implement some measures in order to contribute, to change mentalities and to share with men our public, economic and political life," she argued.
Asked if the directive would help increase the numbers of women in senior positions, she said, "If women can share responsibilities with men and if they have more protection in the workplace, if they are protected from dismissal and if they have some daily breaks for breastfeeding, then I think indirectly yes."
Estrela, who was entitled to just four weeks' maternity leave when she was bringing up her two children in Portugal, said she found it difficult having a career and raising a family.
"It's not easy to reconcile professional life, family life and private life," she said.
"Now I think it's easier because there is better child care and mentalities have changed.
"At that time it was very difficult not only to reconcile everything, but because other women regarded us as being bad mothers, saying 'she's in politics, she doesn't care about her daughters'. It was hard."
Green MEP and vice committee chair Raül Romeva said the measures represented "real progress" for maternity and paternity leave in the EU.
"There is no bigger event for an individual or a family than welcoming a new child to the world, and it is vital that adequate leave is guaranteed for working mothers in particular," he said.
The UK representative on the committee Mary Honeyball said the bill was "urgently needed to level out the current imbalance in European women's maternity entitlements".
"The UK currently has one of the lowest maternity entitlements in the EU, third only to Greece and Luxembourg," she added. "I will be supporting this piece of legislation all the way."
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