As part of our ongoing coverage of paid leave, we’re rounding up the most important news from the week. Here’s what you need to know about paid leave, working parents, and child care in the United States and abroad.
Something is stopping women from reaching the C-suite, and it’s not kids. In fact, moms are more likely than childless women to want a promotion to a top executive job, according to a new report from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co. Another noteworthy finding: More than 90 percent of both women and men in corporate jobs think taking family leave will hurt their career.
Here’s one more way the modern workplace isn’t set up for couples who want to be equal partners in parenting: Josh Levs argues in The Atlantic that companies that offer benefits to a “primary caregiver” aren’t as gender neutral as they seem.
Paid leave and other family-friendly policies reduce inequality. Anything that increases the number of women in the workforce helps fight income inequality, says a new report from the Center for American Progress.
Five big companies are banding together to make work easier for new parents. The members of the Working Parent Support Coalition—which includes Nestle, Barclay’s, and yogurt-maker Danone—will receive help from the Clinton Global Initiative in researching the effectiveness of their generous parental leave policies.
The Gates Foundation follows Netflix’s lead. The Seattle-based non-profit announced that it will now offer up to 52-weeks of paid leave for new mothers and new fathers.
More money to study family-friendly policies: The Labor Department is giving $1.5 million to state and local governments to research paid leave.