Don’t Forget Dad in Pursuit of Parent-Friendly Workplaces

Is the push toward a family-friendly workplace built upon gender discrimination? That’s the opinion of a growing number of men who are, in the words of human resources expert Suzanne Lucas, doing more than simply complaining to their HR department — they’re lawyering up.

Lucas points to the story of a CNN employee named Josh Levs who, after his daughter was born five weeks premature, sued the company for not granting more than the allowed two weeks paid leave for biological fathers. Levs noted in the suit that the company’s policy allowed much more time for adoptive parents and women who had given birth. In his eyes, these inconsistencies amounted to gender discrimination. Levs and CNN settled outside of court and the company amended their policy to allow equal time off for all new parents, with the exception of women who had given birth (they’re technically on disability).

Here’s what the gender gap looks like around the globe. Those do-good Scandinavian countries are crushing it (as usual).