By Charley Ross

Paternity Leave, Menstrual Leave, Miscarriage Leave. Britain Is Behind on All of It

One law at a time isn't good enough.

From the world’s first dad strike to a parliamentary petition on menstrual leave, the conversation around workplace rights and the body is finally moving. Charley Ross on why piecemeal progress isn’t the same as actual equality.

Something significant happened quietly in British law recently. Pre-24-week pregnancy loss will, for the first time, be formally recognised as bereavement under the Employment Rights Bill. When it takes effect in 2027, both the person who experienced the loss and their partner will be entitled to a minimum of one week's protected leave. It is, by any measure, an overdue acknowledgement that miscarriage is a loss that deserves space, not just sick days.

"For fathers and partners, pregnancy loss can bring grief, shock, and a deep sense of helplessness, yet their needs are often overlooked," says Vicki Robinson, CEO of the Miscarriage Association. "Bereavement leave is vital because it recognises their loss, gives them the space to process what's happened, and allows them to support their partner without the added pressure of work. It sends a clear message that their role and their grief matter too."

It does. And it should be celebrated. But one piece of legislation, arriving in 2027, does not constitute a workplace that is built around the realities of women's bodies and lives. And when you look at the fuller picture of what is still missing in the UK, the gap between where we are and where we need to be becomes difficult to look away from.

Take paternity leave. Current UK provision is one to two weeks, paid below the living wage. It is, by international comparison, one of the worst arrangements in the developed world. In June, fathers took to the streets of London in what was described as the world's first dad strike, organised by campaign group The Dad Shift UK, calling for six weeks of full pay. The demand was not simply about fairness to fathers, though it is that. It was about what adequate paternity leave does to the entire ecosystem around it.

"Countries with better paternity leave have lower gender pay gaps and higher female labour force participation," says George Gabriel, co-founder of The Dad Shift. "But the benefits aren't limited to the gains women can make at work. These same countries have lower rates of postpartum depression, lower rates of relationship breakdown, and more equal distributions of caring responsibilities throughout the life of the child."

The logic is straightforward, even if the politics are not. When fathers cannot afford to take meaningful leave, the default falls to mothers. When mothers absorb the early years of childcare disproportionately, their careers pay a price that compounds over time. The gender pay gap is not a mystery. It is, in significant part, the financial record of who took the time off and who didn't, and why they had no real choice in the matter. Better paternity leave doesn't just benefit fathers. It restructures the conditions that keep women stuck.

Gabriel is also clear that the best paternity leave systems are not narrowly defined. "They are for non-birthing partners in same sex couples, are reserved for the mother in the case of single-parent households, and are transferable to other individuals intimately involved in the healthy raising of the child such as grandparents." The model, in other words, follows the reality of how families actually form and function rather than a template that stopped reflecting lived experience decades ago.

Beyond parenting, a separate but connected conversation is gaining momentum. A petition calling on the UK government to introduce statutory paid menstrual leave of up to three days per month for people with conditions such as endometriosis and adenomyosis has passed 50,000 signatures, triggering a required government response. At 100,000 it will be debated in Parliament. Portugal has already introduced legislation on this. Spain has too, though take-up there has been slow, partly because initial legislation limited eligibility to those with diagnosed conditions, creating a barrier that disproportionately affects women who have yet to receive a diagnosis after years on waiting lists.

"Equal workplaces support the needs of all employees," says Rachel Grocott, CEO of Pregnant Then Screwed. "This includes supporting the menstrual health of women and people who menstruate, from the provision of period products in workplaces, to policies including flexible working and leave for menstrual health conditions. Supporting women's needs enables them to stay and succeed in the workplace, and is an essential part of gender equality."

Sweden, Lithuania and Iceland lead on paternity leave. Portugal and Spain are ahead on menstrual leave. The UK is catching up on miscarriage bereavement rights, slowly, with legislation that won't arrive until 2027. The picture is of a country that responds to individual campaigns rather than building a coherent framework, that makes concessions rather than commitments, that treats the body as an inconvenience to be accommodated rather than a basic reality to be designed around.

What connects all of these issues is the same underlying principle: that workplaces built around a male default, a body that doesn't menstruate or carry children or miscarry, will always require women to absorb costs that their male colleagues do not. Paternity leave reform, menstrual leave, miscarriage bereavement rights. These are not separate issues competing for attention. They are different expressions of the same argument: that equality at work requires accounting for the full range of human experience, not just the part that has historically been treated as standard.

The changes coming are real. They are also incomplete. And the distance between an important first step and the thing we are actually trying to build is worth keeping in clear view.