“It is a generational shift happening in Australia,” says Marian Baird, professor of gender and employment relations at the University of Sydney Business School. “It is a wake-up call to government to reassess the current paid parental leave policy and look at the way it can be modernised... It was a breakthrough policy when it was introduced and the 10-year point is a good time to take stock to see where it could be modified and improved upon.”
BCG has 450 workers in Australia. The firm’s human resources director, Michaela Alhadeff, notes that the paid leave for new fathers “is absolutely critical in how we support women.”
“If we want to (have) greater equality of opportunity for women, we need to provide greater equality for men at home,” Alhadeff says. “We have a leadership who deeply understands the change and are behind it. Some of the first people who took it up were our most senior leaders.”