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** Parental leave must work for women: A letter from our Chief Exec
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Dear Supporter,

The fight for women’s equality is long and unpredictable. With many areas of our lives still affected by gendered expectations and sexism.

Perhaps this is truest in our own homes.

For many women, far from ‘having it all’, they are simply ‘doing it all’.

There are millions of women right now who are struggling. Struggling with the daily expectation of being the one who cleans, cooks, cares for everyone else around her. Today, as kids go back to school, there are too many homes where women feel alone in managing it all.

These are not light or fluffy concerns. This is not jokey “dad can’t remember what the teacher is called” stuff. It is serious. It is unfair and unequal. And it’s born from sexist ideas about whose role it is to hold the home together. Women are not better equipped to wake throughout the night or keep endless lists of all the things that need doing.

Inequality at home affects women’s careers, our pay, our progression, our mental health, and our wellbeing.

And that is why we have written to the Prime Minister calling for major reform of the current parental leave system. Because the current system doesn’t just allow the unequal distribution of our domestic lives, it perpetuates it.

We have rallied nearly 50 organisations, campaigners and academics to get behind 4 key priority policies:
* increasing maternity pay for mums and adoptive parents
* Improving paternity leave & pay
* Extending this support to self-employed parents
* Ensuring these rights are felt by everyone from day one.

Right now, we have the least generous parental leave system in Europe. A system that tells dads to get back to work after 2 weeks; meaning many mums struggling at home, alone. How can we possibly hope to make parenting fairer and more equal where the system itself drive that unfairness? It is keeping our homes stuck in the 1950s.

In July 2025, the government agreed with us. It agreed that the whole system needed urgent review and there would be “no stone unturned”. Ministers declared the parental leave must work for women, men, for children and for all families including single parents, kinship care, and adoptive parents. We agree. And now, that is why we are pushing for.

Burnham wants this to be a ‘cost of living government’; that he wants to help ‘struggling families’. Well, here is a golden opportunity to do just that.

We know the economic situation is challenging. We aren’t asking for everything from tomorrow (though that would be great!). We are asking for government to keep to its word and pledge to reform the whole system over time, with clear commitments to increasing the financial support for all parents, particularly mums.

If you want to support this campaign, you can:
1. Share our asks on social media
2. Write to your MP and ask what is happening with parental leave reform
3. Share your experience of parental leave with us by email (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Parental%20Leave&body=) - we would love to hear from you

And if you’d like to support Fawcett’s work more widely, there are two ways you can help.

You can make a one-off donation to help us keep calling on those in power to reform the systems that hold women back.

Make a one-off gift now ([link removed])

Or, if you want to be part of the Fawcett movement and campaign with us to make long term change for women, join us as a member.

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Women’s equality is muti-faceted. It is as much about what goes on behind closed doors, as what goes on in workplaces. The current parental system doesn’t just hold women back; it is causing us harm.

We need government to do what it said it would do. Change the whole system. Support all families.

In solidarity,

Penny East
Chief Exec

Share your views with Penny (mailto:[email protected]?subject=FAO%3A%20Penny.%20My%20thoughts%20on%20women%E2%80%99s%20rights%20and%20the%20Equality%20Act&body=)


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