Fathers and Parental Leave Revisited

This article continues the author's work on parental leave and fathers' involvement with their children in light of several years under the Family and Medical Leave Act. It discusses why paternal involvement is important to children, fathers and mothers. It also explores the link between fathers' taking parental leave and their later involvement in the lives of their children. It focuses on two barriers to paternal use of parental leave: economics and workplace hostility. It examines developments under collective bargaining agreements, unemployment compensation laws and the FMLA. It finds that evolving arbitral interpretations of collective bargaining agreements and judicial interpretations of unemployment compensation statutes are trending toward recognizing employer responsibilities to accommodate employees' childcare responsibilities. However, it also finds a disturbing developing judicial hostility toward the remedial purposes behind the FMLA which could impede that statute's effectiveness for breaking down barriers to increased paternal use of parental leave