Perez-Vaisvidovsky, N. (2018). In the name of the mother: The status of fathers in Israeli social policy, as seen through parental leave and work hour regulation. Hevra Ve’Revaha, 38 (2), 281-310
The rising commitment of fathers to household labor in general and to childcare specifically receives public attention in the recent decade in Israel. The Israeli society is experiencing a wide public discussion on changes in fathers’ role and their rising involvement in childcare. This discussion, however, does not extend to the field of social policy.
This paper will examine the social policy aimed at enabling fathers to care for their children in Israel. I will focus on the area of Work Family balance, an area meant to enable parents to balance their commitment to the paid labor market and their responsibility and desire to provide proper care to their children. Specifically, this paper will focus on two areas of policy included in this field: parental leave and work hour regulation.
In these two fields, the paper will describe the legal situation and the options fathers face, and will then turn to examine the considerations that lead the policy design, aiming to identify how