Reconceptualizing parental leave benefi ts in COVID-19 Canada: From employment policy to care and social protection policy

Abstract

Although the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spurred critical and much-needed at- tention to re-thinking policy approaches to child care and long-term elder care, little focus has been given to its implications for parental leave policies and parental benefi ts for the care of infants and young chil- dren. This article is about reconceptualizing and reconfi guring employment-based parental leave poli- cies in Canada both during and after COVID-19. Informed by theoretical insights from the fi elds of care economies, feminist political economy, and care and social reproduction and by national and international parental leave research, we argue that it is time to reconceptualize parental leave benefi ts not only as em- ployment policy but also as a care and social protection policy. To make this shift, we explore three topic areas: a mixed system of parental benefi ts that combine employment-based and citizenship-based entitle- ments, connections between policy design and gender equality, and the need for robust intersectional data to track which Canadian families are receiving parental benefi ts.