Ed Miliband isn’t a ‘wuss’

By Lisa James

In the week that Ed Miliband returns from paternity leave, it seems to me as if there is an increasingly worrying and condescending attitude towards the idea of such leave. In last Sunday’s Observer Simon Hoggart called him a ‘wuss’ for taking the full two weeks leave, saying:

“If he were the CEO of a big company, nothing – not even the need to mix formula and do his cuddling duty – would keep him from at least looking in for crucial meetings, in this case prime minister’s questions. He could have slotted that, with preparation, into a couple of hours and been home to change many nappies.”

The offhand reference to ‘cuddling duty’ implies to me that Hoggart views paternity leave as an indulgence, something men can opt in to, to help out their wives if their job is sufficiently undemanding. What it is not, in Hoggart’s view, is a right to which all men should be entitled or something which men should prioritise.

Hoggart appeared on today’s Women’s Hour defending his position and was countered by the view that Ed Miliband was ‘brave’ to take all his paternity leave. Whilst I’m pleased that Hoggart’s view is not shared by everyone, the very fact that a high-profile politician taking paternity leave creates such a level of debate indicates to me that we haven’t made the necessary cultural shift to a position where we as a society consider men and women to have an equal role as care-givers for their young children.

Of course, the debate about Ed Miliband’s paternity leave is not just triggered by the fact he has taken two weeks off work; it also fits neatly into the media view that Labour is a party at war with itself. However, this aside, the very fact that we are having this debate should in itself be a cause for deep concern and shows we are a very long way from the cultural shift needed to challenge deep-rooted gender stereotypes and move towards a position where men and women can have equal roles both in the home and the workplace (for more on this, see Katie McCroy’s excellent post on parental leave).

Gender equality is not just about the roles of women; it is also about changing the way we as a society see the roles of men and being much more flexible about how we share our roles and responsibilities as employees, family members and citizens. Sniping about paternity leave shows how depressingly far we still have to go.