As an American, looking at other countries’ parental leave policies feels a little bit like pressing your nose against the window of Bergdorf Goodman, fogging up the glass with longing as you know there’s absolutely no way you can have anything inside.
But while the U.S. remains one of just seven countries in the world without a paid maternity leave policy, Spain just expanded access to full and fair leave for single parents.
Spain’s parental leave policy has grown increasingly progressive since 2007, when the country established a two-week paternity leave. By 2020, it was extended to 12 weeks, and in 2021 fathers received the same leave opportunities as mothers: 16 weeks.
Under this model, which is run by social services, the first six weeks of leave are mandatory and uninterrupted for both parents to take together following birth or adoption. The remaining 10 weeks can be taken cumulatively or intermittently within the first 12 months of welcoming the baby home. Extensions can be granted for multiple births, children with disabilities, and NICU stays.
But while this model addresses gender parity, it does not offer equal opportunity to single parents. The policy provides babies born to two parents up to 26 weeks at home with their family while children can only have 16. Back in November, Spain’s constitutional court ruled that the country’s existing parental leave policy was discriminatory against children born into single-parent homes.
“It seems indisputable that parents in single-parent families have — at least — the same reconciliation needs as parents in two-parent families,” the court ruled, going on to highlight that the need for equitable leave could be seen as even greater as single-parent families are at higher risk of poverty.
And now, for the first time, a woman identified by The New York Times as Silvia Pardo Moreno has successfully petitioned a regional court for this right.
Pardo gave birth to a daughter in the southeast region of Murcia in 2022 as a single mom and part-time worker. At the time, Pardo requested 32 weeks leave from social services, arguing that her child should be entitled to as much time home as one born to two parents. (She calculated this time differently than the constitutional court, simply multiplying the standard 16 weeks by two). She was denied, first by social services and then by Spanish courts.
But on a recent appeal, in the wake of the constitutional court ruling, she was ultimately granted her request, albeit nearly 3 years late.
“All that time when my daughter needed the care to which she was entitled has gone, and the ruling can’t give it back,” Pardo told the press. “I’m very happy that her rights have been recognized, but, at the same time, it’s really sad that she didn’t have those rights when it mattered.”
Pardo’s victory in Murcia sets a precedent in the Spanish court, and legal experts believe this expands rights for tens of thousands of single-parent families throughout the country.
