Speaking today at the launch of a report on parenting by thinktank Demos, Clegg confirmed that the Government would in April introduce measures formulated by the Labour government to allow fathers to take up to a maximum of six months of their partner's remaining unpaid maternity leave if the mother returns to work.
In addition, Clegg announced that the Government would begin consultation on a system of paid shared leave, due to be introduced in 2015.
Clegg said that existing rules on maternity and paternity leave "patronise women and marginalise men".
"They're based on a view of life in which mothers stay at home and fathers are the only breadwinners," Clegg said. "That's an Edwardian system that has no place in 21st Century Britain.
"Women suffer. Mothers are expected to take on the vast bulk of childcare themselves. If they don't, they very often feel judged. If they do, they worry about being penalised at work."
Clegg said the aim was to consult businesses to ensure that the new system is "sustainable and affordable".
"We want to create an environment that encourages parents and their employers to discuss leave plans openly and constructively," Clegg said. "And we want to help businesses keep the staff that they have invested in.
"That, ultimately, leaves British companies benefitting from a happier, more productive workforce."
There was negative reaction from business groups to Clegg’s comments.
The director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, David Frost, said businesses were not opposed to the principle of shared parental leave, but claimed that the system would prevent businesses from planning and arranging cover. "The rigid rules Nick Clegg refers to and plans to abolish are the very same rules needed by business to help them plan," Frost said. "While Nick Clegg’s announcement on shared parental leave may prove politically popular, it fundamentally ignores the needs of business."
Clegg’s announcement was made shortly after facilities provider Regus found that London companies are shying away from hiring working mothers.
Published last week, its survey of 300 London companies suggested that four out of ten businesses believe working mums show less commitment and flexibility than other employees and almost a third believe mothers will leave shortly after training to have another child.
Celia Donne, Regus’s regional director, herself a working mother, said: "It is disappointing that prejudiced attitudes may have returned with economic belt-tightening. Some businesses are evidently still guilty of applying old-fashioned misgivings to today’s workplace."
