The Case for Paternity Leave in ‘The Atlantic’

The January/February issue of The Atlantic magazine has an interesting piece called “The Daddy Track” that discusses how places with liberal paternity leave policies not only help make men more involved, active fathers but also help women in the workplace and at home.

And, of course, it features quotes from a couple of our NYC Dads Group guys: co-founder Lance Somerfeld and member Rich Gallagher.

The article, by Liza Mundy, notes that such workplace policies are helping change business and individual attitudes about the importance of fatherhood: “The brilliance of “daddy days,” as this solution came to be known, is that rather than feeling stigmatized for taking time off from their jobs, many men now feel stigmatized if they don’t,” she writes.

Just as interesting is a follow-up by the magazine’s senior editor Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why I’m Against ‘Daddy Days,’” which is less inflammatory than it sounds.

Coates, a father, is not against paternity leave but rather against the need to have separate policies and attitudes for men and women when they should be looked upon as equals whether they are at-home or working parents.