Women’s responsibility for caring of dependent members of the family, by means of non-paid work, is usually pointed as the main fundament for the gender wage gap and the gender discrimination at the workplace, as well as for the very feeble sharing of men (fathers) in the family caring cores. That led us to the conclusion that women and their employers bear most of the costs of work/family conciliation policies.
Maternity and paternity leave arrangements are main features of work/family conciliation policies which, until now, have performed poorly as regards of gender equity in the labour market and in the household. For the sake of gender equity and social reproduction it is crucial to change work/family conciliation policies.
This research project aims at contributing to this discussion by the analysis and evaluation of the actual maternity/paternity leave arrangements and work-family life conciliation policies in Portugal.
To achieve the proposed outcomes for the project we will evaluate: maternity and paternity policies and practices; maternity and paternity costs borne by employees and by employers.
An essential assumption of the research is that maternity and paternity protection policies are of crucial importance for gender equality. On our way to an egalitarian future we have to find a rational and fair way to socialize reproduction costs.