Examining Social Policies and Support for Maternity Leave with an Emphasis on New Areas in Selected World Countries

Family policies are considered as a set of measures by governments to support the family and strengthen the family's structure and functions. Historically, family politics has been influenced by two major policies of welfare state policy, including social and demographic policies. In other words, these policies are either focused on providing welfare benefits to the family or seeking an increase in childbearing rates and replacement rates. Family policies in the field of child-rearing include a wide range of support, such as child-raising leave, life support, and daycare. Childbirth leave is one of the most important parts of this policy, with four forms of maternity leave, parental leave, parental leave, and housekeeping. Fathers leave is the latest form of this type of leave, and is generally created to deepen the relationship between fathers and children in the early days of their birth and encourage parental involvement in parenting matters. In this article, selected world countries on parental leave, especially fathers, have been investigated using the comparative study method. The result of the survey shows that among the countries studied, European countries have focused more on the development of these types of leave, but there are still serious challenges in this area such as low leave time, lack of financial support from the father during the leave period, job norms and lack of sufficient information.