NEW FACES

The main objective of the project NEW FACES is to encourage fathers to take parental leave through provision of information on parental leave for fathers and by organising workshops for fathers. We will collect the experiences of the project in a so-called guidance book to be used by relevant officers at the local level across Europe.

Thus the long-term goal is that fathers will make use of their right to take parental leave. The short-term goal is to encourage cities and towns to be a facilitator of the rights fathers have to take parental leave. The local level is indeed most appropriate to campaign for men taking existing fatherhood opportunities. It is also the level where European and national regulations and the different provisions and services have to be combined in adequate conciliation policies. Encouraging more men to take parental leave not only gives the father a great possibility to spend time with the child while it is a baby, it also gives the mother a chance to get (back) into the labour market. It would be easier for women to have an active professional career.

Thus to promote the use of parental and paternity leave will have a positive influence on the reconciliation of working life with family life. In NEW FACES, active fatherhood creates more gender equality for women but it also promotes more equality for men, in the sense that they will be able to enter the otherwise female dominated area of taking care of small children.