The DAP Central Executive Committee(CEC) at its meeting last night made a historic decision to adopt parental leave proposed by DAP Wanita. DAP Wanita Chief and Penang state EXCO member Chong Eng had made the proposal on the basis that many young working parents, especially those without family support in the cities, are struggling between paid jobs and caring for their children and family.
In a patriarchal society that follows the traditional model of gender division of family responsibilities, the father takes care of family livelihood whilst the mother takes care of the children and household. The burden of caring for a sick child invariably falls on the mother. Motherhood and caring for off springs are the main reason that women drop out from the career path, being paid less and discriminated in promotion.
This also partly explains why despite there being more female than male graduates from universities every year for last two decades, female labour participation rate in the work force is still low at 54% in Malaysia, one of the lowest in South East Asia. Malaysia’s hopes of becoming a developed nation and high-income economy will come to naught if we cannot achieve more than a 60% labour participation rate. All developed nations have a female labour participation rate of more than 60%.
The 3 days annual paid parental leave will be granted to both mothers and fathers for children under 12 years of age. This is to stress the equal importance of both parents in caring for and bringing up their children. Also, the 3 days paid annual parental leave will encourage mothers to work or stay on paying jobs after marriage.
More can be done for dual working parents to balance paid work and family commitments. But for this Labour Day 2017, DAP will start off with 3 days of annual paid parental leave for parents who have children below 12 years old.