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Twitter to Join 21st Century, Offer All Employees 20 Weeks Paid Parental Leave

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Family leave practices are still behind the times in a lot of instances, but there’s been a recent push to remedy that, and Twitter is now the latest tech company to institute equal paid parental leave for both men and women. It’s starting to feel positively twenty-first century around here!

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Previously, the company had offered 20 weeks of paid leave for women who give birth, but it’d been lopsided in only offering men (and adoptive parents) 10 weeks. That’s not just unfair, but it pretty heavily implies that women are still expected to be the ones to spend more time tending to their children.

Not only is equal leave for men and women a good sign for gender equality (which we all know is a struggle throughout the workforce and the tech industry particularly), but as Fortune reports, 88% of employees in the U.S. have no access to paid parental leave through their employers, gender-neutral or otherwise. That’s pretty disturbing when you consider that, for most people, the entire point of having a job is to be able to support their family, and employers should recognize that and help make it happen.

For Twitter’s part, they’re hoping that this decision will help to spark a wider trend as other industries look to cutting-edge tech companies to take their cues. Jeffrey Siminoff, Twitter’s new vice president of inclusion and diversity, told Fortune, “The goal of this change was to expand how we think about parental leave. Primary caregiving is something that’s hard to define. We’re a very watched industry because of the products and services we offer. We want to lead by example and by doing so we can influence the decisions of others.” We certainly hope so.

(via Jezebel, image via Twitter)

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Dan Van Winkle
Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct <em>Geekosystem</em> (RIP), and then at <em>The Mary Sue</em> starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at <em>Smash Bros.</em>

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