Cherie expects Tony to take paternity leave for their fourth child

LONDON, MARCH 21: Cherie Booth, the barrister wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has called for changes to the ``its a man's world...

LONDON, MARCH 21: Cherie Booth, the barrister wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has called for changes to the “its a man’s world” work place culture in Britain. Booth, who is expecting her fourth child in May, also hinted that she expected her husband to take paternity leave as the Prime Minister of Finland has done on two occasions.

Booth said: “I am pleased to report that in 1998 the Prime Minister ofFinland took advantage of his right to paternal leave. He has done it againrecently. I, for one, am promoting the widespread adoption of his fine example.” Finnish Prime Minister, Paavo Lipponen, took the paid paternity leave he was entitled to as an example to men in Finland, that they were indispensable at work.

Booth said that things would only change when men accepted that theyhad a role in bringing up their children. She said: “It is time men startedto challenge the assumptions in the work place that the nurturing of childrenhas nothing to do with them. Our children need their male role models as wellas their female ones if they are to grow up into well-rounded, well-balancedindividuals.”

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Booth, an expert in employment law, criticised the current work place culture in Britain. She said the lives of working women were sometimes intolerable because of the “inherent discrimination” of the employment environment.

Britain has one of the worst work place regimes in Europe. In recent years, individuals have gone to court and won cases on grounds of unequal pay, unfair dismissal for taking time off for child care and for the clothes they wear.

In a speech to fellow lawyers at King’s College, London University, she saidthat one form of discrimination that women faced everyday was the struggle tobalance their working lives and the care of their children. She said the work environment, with its rigid and long working hours, inflexible leave patterns and intolerance of career breaks discriminated against women with children.

She said the other form of discrimination was “loudly and clearly spelled out by the pay gap”. In Britain, women in most sectors tend to be paid lower wage rates than their male colleagues and stand to lose substantially if they take a break from work to have children.

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Booth said: “Women are not on an equal footing with men. The legal system has not developed quickly enough to deal effectively with this type of discrimination.”

However, she added: “That is the situation now but one I believe will change in the future, because of necessity.” She said that in order to employ and retain women workers, employers will have to find ways of implementing practices, such as flexible working hours, job-share schemes and improved child-care. She said that where these policies were already being implemented there were reduced rates of absenteeism, improved staff retention and a wider pool of prospective employees.