The role of dad
When Suit Tie Stroller founder Blake Woodward became a father, he quickly realised how inherently biased society still is against dads playing an active caring role. For all the progress that has been made to support women to have greater equality in the workplace, the flow on implications of these improved policies and what it means for partners of those women, families or the community as a whole hasn’t been given enough attention. Sadly children are still approached in commercial, social and government realms as a women’s issue.
Achieving equality for dads isn’t just about the rights of men — it’s about equal rights that benefit men, women, children and society.
Our mission
We hope to
We do this by
To empower working dads to be active parents and advocate for policies that better support modern families and workplaces.
Increase the proportion of organisations offering gender-neutral paid parental leave
Increase the number of dads taking primary and secondary carer leave each year
De-stigmatise and normalise the role of active carer dads in the home and in society
Decrease the gender pay and ‘career opportunity’ gaps
Equip parents to build stronger relationships with each other and their family
Empower new parents to make decisions that are based on achieving the best outcomes for their children, family unit and community
Connecting dads to share experiences and build community
Informing dads about their rights and the benefits of being involved parents
Equipping dads and organisations to better navigate men’s parental leave and flexible working needs
Raising awareness of the experiences of working dads to improve corporate and government policy, reduce gender inequality and shift cultural norms
Empowering parents to choose how to share the financial burden and impacts on both careers that are inherent in having children
Supporting the careers of mothers by helping them to re-enter the workforce and thrive in their careers
Enabling healthier families and formative family relationships — something communities have a vested interest in
Challenging government and the corporate world to alleviate gender inequality related to parental responsibilities and create better working environments that improve employee engagement, wellbeing and overall performance.
Did you know?
5% of dads
take primary carer (i.e. long term) leave in the first year of their child's life
6.7% increase in mum's wages
for every month a father stays on parental leave
49.4% of employers
offered paid parental leave for primary carers in 2018-19 (many employers don't allow dads to access this leave)
Australia ranks 16th for parental leave
in comparison to other OECD and EU countries
10.6 weeks
is the average length of paid primary carers leave offered by Australian organisations (often only offered to mums)
0.36% dads receiving PPL
Only 620 dads took the government's Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme between June 2016 and March 2017
Note: Any reference to products, organisations, publications or policies on this site are not paid or driven by monetary interest. These are purely opinions from my own experiences and personal research that I hope others might find helpful, insightful or interesting. I hope you will share your thoughts, be inspired to find the right balance in your life and encourage your organisation and government representatives to support others in doing the same.