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
Background: The increasing engagment of fathers in the household recieves large public attention. Israeli society witness a widespread discussion of this change, but it is not reflected in public policy.
Aims: the paper seeks to analyse the social policy aimed at enabling fathers to care for their children in the state of Israel. The paper focuses on the field defined as ‘work-family balance’, meant to give parents the option to combine their waged labor with their commitments and rights to care for their children. The paper examines two field included in this area: parental leave and work hours regulation.
Methodology: Qualitative research, analysis of semi-structured interviews, archival data and secondary literature
Findings: the paper describes the legal reality in these two areas, and examines the considerations that lead policy formation, aiming to identify the ways policymakers perceive fathers’ role in the family. In the two surveyed fields, the author identifies the principle of ‘in the name of the mother’: even in policy programs that are explicitly aimed at fathers, policy makers’ goals are not to promote fathers’ care, but rather to enable mothers optimal integration into the workforce.
Conclusions and Policy Recomendations: Focusing on the mother’s needs leads to legislation that does not fulfill it’s role. To make fathers enhance their household participation and change gendered division of labor in the household and in the labor market, legislation has to focus on the concrete characteristics of these fathers, and tailor programs to their needs.