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Comment by progers7 | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this is practical because many men do not take their full paternity leave. For biological reasons alone, the woman needs to take more.

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You could simply make it mandatory time off. But either way, he has a point. A company doesn't want to risk hiring someone that might miss a huge swath of time, for any reason. Not in every job but in many jobs, an employee isn't just an employee, they are an investment. If it was mandatory for both sexes though, it would level the playing field.

>You could simply make it mandatory time off.

Then I won't notify the company when I've had a child. Simple as.

Don't consider going down the road of "you must declare what is happening in your private life to your private employer" as someone else did either, without at least considering what an absolute breach of privacy that would involve.

It wouldn't matter, because in the end the company would hire you or promote you with the same expectation as women. It would start to make less and less sense to not take the paternity leave because the opportunity cost would diminish. If you didn't take off, it would be your loss. The system wouldn't be perfect, but it would -help-

We've already decided as a society, in the US at least, that your right to privacy from your company concerning the existence of your children does not exist. The government is willing and able to inform your employer to garnish your wages when it comes to child support payments. They also know if you take dependents on your tax forms.

There are arguments to be made that this right _should_ exist, but since it doesn't currently its not a reason to stop mandatory leave

Biology doesn’t have much to do with it. Being a parent of a newborn is incredibly difficult, no matter if you’re the one bleeding continuously for eight weeks or not.

Women “need” to take more than zero days off. That’s true, at least in our modern conception of child rearing. Both parents should take at least two months off, especially in the current system where people don’t have much community or family support.

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