Missed Opportunities and Other Working Parent Policy Things — How to Smash the Motherhood Penalty

I'm back with the marvellous Stephanie Pow, founder of Crayon and a repeat offender on this podcast. We recorded this the same morning we'd both been doing media commentary on the National Party's newly announced parental leave policy, so this episode is a bit of a riff session: two working parent advocates unpacking what the policy actually says, what it misses, and what we'd both want to see instead.

Steph walks me through the detail of the proposed staggered increase from 26 to 30 weeks of paid parental leave and the option to share it between partners, and we dig into why "shareable" leave so often just means "unused" leave when the numbers don't stack up.

We talk dedicated paid partner's leave, why New Zealand remains one of just three developed countries without it, and the research linking it to everything from father and mother mental health to relationship stability and even mothers' long-term earnings. We also get into unpaid caregiving, individual versus joint taxation, the true cost of school holidays, and why I think it's time for a Minister for Working Parents.

This is an election year conversation for anyone who wants to walk into a town hall meeting armed with the right questions.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

What's actually in National's new parental leave policy, and where it falls short
Why "shareable" parental leave doesn't work if the numbers don't work for families
The research on paid partner's leave: mental health, relationship stability and mothers' earnings
Why NZ, the US and Israel are the only developed countries with no paid partner's leave
What the You Choose survey found Kiwi women actually want from caregiving policy
Why unpaid caregiving needs to be valued and supported, not just paid leave
How individual tax filing in NZ compares to countries that support single-income or part-time families
Why the "first thousand days" research should change how we think about parental leave as infrastructure
My case for a Minister for Working Parents, and why nobody is joining the dots

Connect with Emma

This podcast was funded and created by Emma Mclean, the founder of Works for Everyone. Emma Mclean is a mum of three and founder of Works for Everyone, a professional development business that partners with NZ's leading corporates to help them retain and grow their working parent talent. She does this through innovative leadership programmes, executive coaching and keynote speaking. She founded her business in 2019 following a 20-year career in corporate strategy where she experienced first-hand how hard it was to have a career and a family. As an impatient optimist when it comes to system change, she launched her successful podcast "How to Smash the Motherhood Penalty" in 2023 where she talks to humans who are actively working to change the system that creates financial penalties that only mothers pay. And in 2024 she launched the first NZ Part Time Power List, to shine a light on those senior roles in NZ that are career building, not side stepping.

To work with Emma or enquire about speaking: emma@worksforeveryone.co.nz

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