New French fathers will soon have to take an obligatory seven days of paternity leave, President Emmanuel Macron has announced.
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The total leave for new fathers will be increased from 14 days to one month, Macron said in a video posted to Instagram.
The decision was "first and foremost a move in favour of equality between women and men," the president said.
"When a child arrives in the world there is no reason why it should be just the mummy who looks after it," he added.
It was important to have a more equal sharing out of tasks "from the first day," Macron said, adding that equality between the sexes was "the great cause of my five-year term and we are continuing to make progress".
Australian Associated Press