Men have a competitive edge over women, because fathers rely on the working mother’s flexibility, hard work and sacrifices to balance work and family responsibilities, said researcher Josanne Cutajar at a conference last week.

The conference is part of the framework of the European programme to promote gender equality – in particular the role of men (particularly fathers) in the reconciliation of work and private life.

The project is co-funded by the European Commission – Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and the Cyprus Ministry for Justice and Public Order. Malta, Italy and Greece are the main partners in the programme.

According to statistics quoted by Dr Cutajar, the average father who takes parental leave is aged 38, has had a tertiary education and works in the public sector.

Employees working in the public sector can take up to one year of unpaid parental leave, apart from the 13 weeks of paid maternity leave and three days of paid paternal leave.

Only 1.6 per cent of fathers working in the public sector took one year of parental leave between 1997 and 2001, said Dr Cutajar. However, 98 per cent of women working in the public sector took one-year parental leave.

There are no statistics for men working in the private sector who took parental leave, although almost all working mothers took the 14 weeks of maternity leave available.

“The parental rights available in the public sector should also be available in the private sector,” said Dr Cutajar.

Financial compensation and considering childcare as time-in-service are further incentives to entice more men to take parental leave, she added.

Dr Cutajar gave Iceland as an example. “Over 90 per cent of fathers apply for the three months of parental leave.”

According to Icelandic law, both the mother and father have three months of paid parental leave, which can be taken concurrently or separately.

Artemis Toumazi was the main speaker at a conference entitled “Gender Equality – A Responsibility of Both Sexes”, organised by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality.

She is the president of the Cyprus Federation of Business and Professional Women and president of the European Programmes Committee of the National Machinery for Women’s Rights, Cyprus.

Mrs Toumazi explained that the project aims to create awareness among all target groups of the benefits gained from the involvement of men in the promotion of gender equality.

It will also reveal how children and young people perceive the role of men and fathers and the stereotypes they have, and will discover the extent to which the education system trains children towards gender equality.

“We want to motivate men and women to share more household and family responsibilities with their partners,” said Mrs Toumazi. “We also want to involve decision-makers and NGOs in the traditional gender power order in work and private life to promote gender mainstreaming.”

The information collected will be used to suggest measures and policies for the promotion of change at national and EU level, she explained.

Mrs Toumazi spoke about two recent projects on gender awareness run in Cyprus. High-schoolchildren wrote about their experience with their fathers and his absence from their upbringing.

“The children, through their work, managed to present in a very vivid and representative way, the typical – for many families – situation with the overloaded, caring, always busy mother and the ‘spoilt’ father, who insists on his sovereignty,” she said.

However, Maronna Filletti from Malta’s Employment Agency pointed out that parental leave does not allow a business to be competitive.

“While it is important that parental leave is granted, it is not easy for a business to have everyone out on leave and it has to be restricted,” she said.

There is a need to balance the system so that parents can take parental leave without leaving businesses with gaps.

One assistant principal attending the conference said that it was quite common for parents to take sick leave when their children were ill.

“It is not an easy situation, and it is difficult to explain to your children that you are ‘sick’ because you have to stay at home with them,” he said.

Another teacher pointed out that the common mentality in university and secondary schools is that boys do not help out at home.

“Maltese mothers cosset their sons, who grow up with the idea that they do not have do anything in the home and leave it all to their mothers,” she said. “If we are going to promote gender equality, we have to start from the very basics.”