Mother, father, parent.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is carrying out a final consultation – having already consulted in 2006 and 2007 – on bringing in additional paternity leave. The proposals in effect make the latter six months of maternity leave into flexible parental leave by allowing mothers to transfer up to 26 weeks’ leave entitlement to fathers after the first 20 weeks.

Although the term "father" is used throughout the consultation paper, additional paternity leave and pay would also be available to partners (of either sex) of mothers and members of adopting couples who are employed and who qualify for statutory adoption leave and pay.

Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, said last month: "The new rights will give families radically more choice and flexibility in how they balance work and care of children, and enable fathers to play a bigger part in bringing up their children."

While Harman often, and rightly, points out how new Labour has doubled maternity leave from six months to (soon to be) twelve months, and increased maternity pay, this has not challenged gender roles. The EHRC's 'Working Better' report found that, "new parental rights introduced over the past decade are well intentioned but entrench the current unequal division of labour and caring between the sexes and work against gender equality".

The Government's Enterprise tsar, Sir Alan Sugar, made this point all too clearly when he said he would be less likely to hire a woman of child-bearing age. Explaining, he said: "If someone comes into an interview and you think to yourself 'there is a possibility that this woman might have a child and therefore take time off' it is a bit of a psychological negative thought", adding that extended maternity leave was "counter-productive".

Trade unions have welcomed these proposals, while recognising the need for Government to support further changes in working culture. The CWU advocates that "working parents should be allowed to take time off together and that the time off together should not be limited to just the two weeks of Statutory Paternity Leave".

The GMB pointed out in its response to a previous consultation that UK fathers currently work the longest hours in Europe and that the gender pay gap means that, for the majority of two parent families, it still makes better financial sense for the mother to take the bulk of time off work to care for the children.

But as the Daycare Trust points out, such changes are about "enabling families to make a choice about which parent is the carer, as well as promoting gender equality and potentially closing the gender pay gap" – although such cultural changes may take a long time. The Government estimates in the consultation paper that only 4-8% of fathers will take up this entitlement.

This issue therefore cannot be seen isolation from the gender pay gap, childcare provision and levels of poverty. While this is a welcome move by the Government, there's a lot more that must be done to truly break down traditional gender roles in child-rearing.

The consultation can be downloaded from the departmental website. The deadline for responses is 20th November 2009.