Converting shared parental leave into shared parenting: the role of employers and use of litigation by employees in the UK

The UK government introduced Shared Parental Leave (SPL) in 2014 to expand parents' capabilities to share parenting, by affording fathers similar entitlements to post-birth leave as mothers. Policy sought to simultaneously address other sources of gender inequality to expand parents' capability sets to remain in work after childbirth and to share parenting differently. This social policy development represents a major step forward in addressing gender inequality at home and at work. However, the policy has not produced the desired change in fathers' leave uptake and the implementation has exposed several issues. This chapter argues that legal rights are one possible instrument for reaching that goal andincludes a wider legal and labour market landscape as a potentially relevant source of inequalities. Using the capability approach, it examines how the SPL shapes fathers' capability set to co-parent and how the broader regime of employment and anti-discrimination law addresses gender equality in home and at work. The chapter offers a more comprehensive explanation for the failure of SPL to enhance parents' capability to share parenting in ways they as a couple have reason to value, as well as an example of how to incorporate a multi-level interdisciplinary analysis of legal rights into social policy analysis through a capability lens.