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Mark Zuckerberg’s paternity leave

Posted November. 24, 2015 08:16,   

한국어

“When I was sending off my child to the kindergarten by shuttle bus, I acted as if I was not on paternity leave by wearing formal suit due to concern over people’s attention on me.” This is an account of personal experience presented by a man at a talk show for promoting father’s paternity leave for childrearing held in Busan last week. It demonstrates that overcoming social prejudice is not a simple thing. “Loneness struck me after three months of paternity leave," another father said. "People around me were all mothers. I hoped that he would have a father community to share sympathy of childrearing.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that he will use two-month paid paternity leave once his daughter is born. He married Priscilla Chan, Chinese American and his Harvard alumna, in 2012, but she had three miscarriages. Zuckerberg seems to have made a bold decision because he is gaining his first daughter after hardships. U.S. media reported that it was a powerful statement to address the importance of time with family made by one of the busiest and most influential CEOs in the U.S.

World-leading IT companies are racing with each other to pay attention to leave for childrearing. U.S.-based video streaming company Netflix has announced that it will offer paid leave for up to one year, when an employee gives birth to or adopts a baby. Yahoo increased the duration of maternity leave for female employees from eight weeks to 16 weeks, and introduced an eight-week paid paternity for male employees. Netflix CEO Marissa Mayer returned to work two weeks after giving childbirth in 2012, and will give birth to twins soon. She seems to have been wary of criticism that she disappointed working women by returning to work soon after childbirth.

In Korea, both the government and the private sector are encouraging male employees to take paternity leave, but there is a long way to go. According to a survey by JobKorea, eight out of 10 male workers say they have no plan to use paternity leave. The reason they cited most often was wariness towards the company (53.1 percent), followed by a decline in income, and missed promotion opportunities. The number of males who took paternity leave of absence in Korea amounted to 3,421 last year, which only accounted for 4.5 percent of all workers on childrearing leaves in the country. The corresponding figure is 20 percent for Germany and 44 percent for Sweden. Unless he is a company CEO who does not have to be wary of others’ attention on him, childrearing leave for employed males in Korea is effectively a benefit that is only meant for workers in a foreign country.



mskoh119@donga.com