The Dad Shift movement has made its mark across London statues
Credit: @dadshiftuk
Men campaigning for better paternity leave in the UK have garnered more attention by attaching life-size model babies in slings to statues across central London.
Activists from “The Dad Shift” group placed the babies on statues of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, actors Laurence Olivier and Gene Kelly, and footballers Thierry Henry and Tony Adams.
The eye-catching stunt aims to highlight the need for improved father-baby bonding time.
The Dad Shift activist group attach life-size baby dolls to bronze statues across London
The UK ranks the worst in Europe for paternity leave, offering only two statutory weeks at £184.03 per week.
A study revealed that one in three UK fathers take no paternity leave, and those who do often face financial hardship.
The campaigners, led by co-founders George Gabriel and Alex Lloyd Hunter, are urging the government to take action, delivering an open letter to the prime minister later this month.
Campaigners from The Dad Shift send an open letter to Keir Starmer
“Proper parental leave for fathers and co-parents is good for mothers, good for babies, good for fathers and good for society too. Countries with six or more weeks’ paternity leave have a gender pay gap that’s 4% smaller and a workforce participation gap that is 3.7% smaller too, meaning change can help grow the economy while helping British families,” the letter states.
Campaigners are calling for “parental leave that is affordable for people to take, gives a substantial allowance of time, and supports equality among parents”.
New polling shows that 90 per cent of fathers want to be more involved in their children’s lives. The Labour Party promised in its manifesto that its government would “review the parental leave system, so it best supports working families, within its first year in government”.
The statues with slings attracted significant attention from morning commuters, with many stopping to take photos.
The Dad Shift group hope to better paternity leave for dads in the UK
Gabriel stated, “A lot of people stopped to take photographs; people responded very warmly. We meant it to be a positively provocative sight,”
“There’s such an imbalance in our portrayal and understanding of figures in public life,” Gabriel continued, saying “Women are often asked questions about their lives as wives, mothers and daughters, while male figures in public life are often not invited to share that part of themselves. We wanted to call attention to their role as fathers and also the need to better support people when babies arrive into their lives.”
The Dad Shift’s creative protest aims to spark change for UK families, addressing both financial and social aspects of fatherhood.
