Empathy has been playing a large role in the workplace because employees all want to be understood and treated equally when they are in need. One of the things that have caught my attention is that men and women don’t receive the same empathy for parental leave. It is clear that in the US, paternity leave does not usually get paid as it is for the maternity leave because most people think men do not have to take care of the baby. However, some people have argued that men can help the mom relieve stress and also build the relationship with baby. So male should receive the same empathy as the female does.

In different countries, people have different rules on parental leave. But overall, the number of the women taking maternity leave exceeds men having paternity leave. This raises the question that does employers have more empathy towards to women than men. For my research, I would like to find out if gender role influences the empathy in the workplace. I think it would help us to find out if there is a gender discrimination in the workplace so that we can improve in the future.

Possible Sources:

Zagorsky, Jay L., PhD. “Divergent Trends in US Maternity and Paternity Leave, 1994-2015.” American Journal of Public Health 107.3 (2017): 460-5. ProQuest. Web. 8 Nov. 2017.

Motaung, Lucky L., et al. “Directory of Open Access Journals.” South African Journal of Human Resource Management, AOSIS, 1 Jan. 2017.

Harries, R. L., et al. “A cross sectional study of pregnancy and maternity and paternity leave among surgical trainees in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.” International Journal of Surgery 36 (2016): S105.

Rehel, Erin M. “When dad stays home too: Paternity leave, gender, and parenting.” Gender & Society 28.1 (2014): 110-132.

Tremblay, Diane-Gabrielle, and Émilie Genin. “Parental leave: from perception to first-hand experience.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 30.9/10 (2010): 532-544.