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&lt;p&gt;According to a recent Pew Research poll, approximately one in seven Americans—15% of the population—apparently believes that men &quot;shouldn&#39;t be able to take paternity leave,&quot; whether paid or unpaid.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unsurprisingly, that&#39;s been making the rounds on social media, often with accompanying concern from people who believe that the stat heralds an unwelcome rebirth of 1950s-era values.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But, while I agree that the stat does show a surprising level of support for a position that seems completely out of step with the realities of the modern world (the rise of dual-income households being the major drawback to a &quot;Back to the Future&quot; approach to parental leave policy), I think focusing on the 15% is the wrong move.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/18727/pew_dual_income_households.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Pew Dual Income Households&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we flip the half-full/half-empty perspective, the real takeaway is that 85% of the country believes that some sort of paternity leave is important. And 69% believes that paternity leave should be paid. That&#39;s an unimaginably high level of support for any position in a world that, recently, seems like it&#39;s destined to be split down the middle on &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt;. (I mean, 1 in 4 Americans don&#39;t think &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/14/277058739/1-in-4-americans-think-the-sun-goes-around-the-earth-survey-says&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;the earth revolves around the sun&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And, if we dig a little deeper into the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/27/about-one-in-seven-americans-dont-think-men-should-be-able-to-take-any-paternity-leave/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Pew report&lt;/a&gt;, we find the following breakdown by generation:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&quot;Older adults, particularly older men, are the least supportive of fathers taking time off from work after the birth or adoption of a child. In fact, roughly three-in-ten Americans ages 65 or older (28%) – and 36% of men in this age group – say fathers should not be able to take paternity leave, compared with 16% of Americans ages 50 to 64 and about one-in-ten of those 30 to 49 (10%) and 18 to 29 (9%).&quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To put that another way: a little over a quarter of people who were in their prime child-rearing years at a time when paternity leave was all but unheard of do not believe that paternity leave is necessary. But support for the idea grows with every subsequent generation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you had to map out what acceptance of a change in social norms across generations would look like, it would probably be a lot like this chart, which I put together from data found in the Pew report:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;img src=&quot;https://media2.vault.com/18728/pew_paternity_research_generational_attitudes.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Pew Paternity Leave Generational Breakdown&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Note that, not only is the concept of paternity leave taking a firmer hold with every passing generation, support for the idea that it should be paid is increasing too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bottom line: if you care about closing the gender income gap, then the data in the Pew report is something you should be cheering. Motherhood &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/business/economy/motherhood-still-a-cause-of-pay-inequality.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;remains&lt;/a&gt; a major driver of pay inequality. Increasing acceptance of paternity leave won&#39;t close that by itself—especially because the average amount of paternity leave cited in the Pew research is just one week.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the generational change in attitude towards paternity leave seems to signal a corresponding shift in relation to the role of men as caregivers for children, and an increasing recognition that employers and the government have a role to play in supporting it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, if you&#39;re still worried about a return to the values of yesteryear, take another look at the chart above: that&#39;s what progress looks like.&lt;/p&gt;

Phil Stott

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