Countries: United Arab Emirates
Variables: GIC-LAW-1, GIC-LAW-3

"Based on our systematic review of national legislation and country reports, working mothers in the United Arab Emirates are guaranteed 45 days of paid maternity leave. We did not identify any provisions that protect from dismissal or guarantee job protection for women to take paid maternity leave. We found no provisions that provide paid paternity leave to fathers" (4). "Based on our systematic review of national legislation and country reports, Article 30 of the Federal Law on Labour Relations guarantees 45 days of paid maternity leave to working mothers. We did not identify any provisions that protect from dismissal or guarantee job protection for women to take paid maternity leave....more

Countries: Georgia
Variables: GIC-LAW-1, GIC-LAW-3

"Based on our systematic review of national legislation and country reports, Georgia provides 183 calendar days of paid maternity and parental leave to mothers. Research evidence indicates that paid paternity leave can increase gender equality in caregiving responsibilities and gender equality in employment; it is therefore important to ensure fathers have access to adequate paid paternity leave. However, we identified no provisions that provide paid paternity leave to fathers in Georgia" (4). "Based on our systematic review of national legislation and country reports, Article 27 of the Labour Code of Georgia provides 183 calendar days of paid maternity and parental leave to mothers. Article 27 - Maternity and child care...more

Countries: South Korea
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"Couples who have children are showered with cash, from monthly handouts to subsidised housing and free taxis. Hospital bills and even IVF treatments are covered, though only for those who are married. Such financial incentives have not worked, leading politicians to brainstorm more 'creative' solutions, like hiring nannies from South East Asia and paying them below minimum wage, and exempting men from serving in the military if they have three children before turning 30" (par. 15-16). "Both men and women are entitled to a year's leave during the first eight years of their child's life. But in 2022, only 7% of new fathers used some of their leave, compared to...more

Countries: Morocco
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"[Morocco needs to] strengthen measures, including awareness-raising measures, childcare services and parental leave provisions to ensure gender parity in appointed public positions, including in public administration, particularly at the decision- making level" (9).

Countries: China
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"From 1979 to 2015, China imposed the 'one-child policy.' The policy violated women’s reproductive rights. Its enforcement through measures like forced and coerced abortion and sterilization compounded the abuse" (3). "The Chinese government’s 2015 announcement that it would allow all couples to have two children effectively ended the 'one-child' policy. While a positive step, it did not change the fact that China’s family-planning policies remain coercive and abusive. The state continues to play a deeply intrusive role in women’s reproductive choices and bodily autonomy, controlling both how many children a couple can have and the intervals at which they can have them. Officials have enforced birth quotas for couples by...more

Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: GIC-LAW-1, GIC-LAW-3

"The Committee notes that the revised Labour Code (2022) now provides for eight days of paid paternity leave for the private sector" (8). "The Committee notes the adoption of the amendment to the Family Code on shared family responsibilities, the recognition of domestic and unpaid care work in divorce proceedings and the new paternity leave provisions" (13).

Countries: Costa Rica
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"In 2020, to promote the concept of shared responsibility for caregiving, and as part of a strategy associated with the granting of paternity leave, the National Institute for Women launched a free virtual course called 'Dad can do it too', which is aimed at the general public and is intended to encourage fathers to participate more and take on more responsibilities" (8). "To date, there has been no progress on a concrete proposal to implement paternity leave in the public and private sector of Costa Rica owing to budgetary constraints" (25).

Countries: Japan
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"Tokyo's government is introducing a four-day workweek for its staffers in the capital as part of a nationwide push to encourage parenthood. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the country's stubbornly low birth rate a 'quiet emergency' and has pledged policies like flexible working hours" (para 1-2). "Under the plan, government staff except shift workers may take up to three days off weekly, but will still need to complete 155 hours per month, Sachi Ikegami, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official in charge of personnel affairs said on Wednesday. Employees raising young children will also be offered more flexible hours, with work days shortened by up to two hours, Ikegami...more

Countries: China
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"China last week announced its population had fallen for the first time since the 1960s. The quickly growing cohorts of young students and workers had powered decades of economic growth, even as a government worried about overpopulation enforced a punitive, often abusive one-child policy. Now as growth slows, and the population ages, the government has abruptly switched course and is trying to encourage more siblings" (para 28-29).

Countries: Russia
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"President Vladimir Putin of Russia recently signed a bill into law that will fine anyone who is promoting 'child-free propaganda.' Meant both to shore up 'traditional values' and to increase Russia’s tanking birthrate, it stipulates that any individual found to be disseminating such 'propaganda' may be subject to fines of up to about $4,000; considering the average monthly Russian salary as of 2023 was around $800, that’s a frightening potential penalty. Companies could be fined up to about $50,000" (para 1). "Perhaps if it wants to raise the birthrate, the Russian government would be better off fixing its economy and the out-of-control inflation rate than it would be surveilling speech....more

Countries: Australia
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"Despite Australia's fertility rate plummeting to a record low, the government is not considering a revival of the baby bonus. 'It's not something that we've been discussing. I'm interested, obviously, in the figures,' deputy prime minister Richard Marles told Seven's Sunrise program on Thursday. 'We want to do what we can to make it easier for families and couples to have children and we are doing that. It is important that we have a sustainable birth rate.' The baby bonus was set up by the Howard government and gave $3000 lump sum payments to new parents of children born from July 2004" (para 18-21).

Countries: Kyrgyzstan
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

"[T]he Labour Code provides for the possibility of taking leave to care for a child, which is available not only to mothers, but also to fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers, other relatives or the guardian who actually cares for the child. The introduction of such a norm has had an impact on changing the traditional cultural family roles of men and women" (25). "Under the State Pension Social Insurance Act, women who have given birth to five or more children and have cared for them to the age of eight years are entitled to an old-age pension at the age of 53 years after 15 years of contributions, which is five...more

Countries: South Korea
Variables: MULV-LAW-1, GIC-LAW-1, GIC-LAW-3

"South Korea's government has proposed raising the nation's 52-hour weekly working hours cap to 69 hours in a bid to improve work-life balance. The labour minister said yesterday that increasing the cap by a third will give working mothers more choice and help them raise children amid growing concerns over the country's falling birth rates. The government says allowing workers to accrue more overtime hours in return for time off later will mean people who want to take longer breaks - such as parents or caregivers - will be able to do so" (par. 1-3). "'We'll introduce bold measures to help cut working hours during pregnancy or while raising children,'...more

Countries: Japan
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

“The Children and Families Agency, launched in April 2023, held its first working group meeting on Friday to support young people in their efforts to find partners through dating, matchmaking and other means. Attenders included those considering marriage in the future and experts versed in the challenges facing younger people” (para 2). “Local governments have responded with measures ranging from daycare to matchmaking. In June, the Tokyo metropolitan government said it would launch a dating app as early as this summer. The economist Takashi Kadokura said on a Yahoo Japan news blog that local government efforts to promote marriage were not working and marriages were not increasing because of the...more

Countries: South Korea
Variables: GIC-LAW-1

“In December of that year, as Korea’s fertility rate hovered at 1.2 births per woman (it has since slid to 0.78, the lowest in the world), the Korean government launched an online ‘National Birth Map’ that showed the number of women of reproductive age in each municipality, illustrating just what it expected of its female citizens. (South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol won the election in March 2022 with a message that blamed feminism for Korea’s low birth rate, and a promise to abolish the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.)” (para 15).