The best gift for moms this Mother’s Day? Paternity leave.

By: Courtney Leimkuhler, founding partner, Springbank

As Mother’s Day approaches and conversations swirl about how to best honor the moms in your life, consider giving them a different kind of gift: a structural change that could transform the way women and families function in the workplace. Sound like a bit more than you had in mind? It’s easier than you think.

At Springbank, a venture capital firm I co-founded, we invest in technology, tools and platforms that serve the long-overlooked needs of women and working families. I’m often asked if there is a “silver bullet” to solve the gender gap. In other words, if I had one shot to fire, where would I aim? My answer: mandatory paternity leave.

Research show that when men take leave, both genders win. Here are some key impacts:

1. We reduce unconscious bias at work by attributing the caregiver identity to men, and end up avoiding assumptions that women can handle less because they uniquely or disproportionately must make it home to their kids.
2. We allow men the chance to become caregivers. Childcare is something that men are excluded from at an early age (i.e. most babysitters are girls) and when moms but not dads take leave, it’s solidified. New moms benefit from a vertical learning curve and access a secret stash of knowledge in the form other moms on leave all learning together. The result is path dependency — with dads quickly falling behind and never catching up. All of this can literally just go away when dads take leave too.
3. Men and women share household duties more equitably forever. Several studies have shown that when men take paternity leave, it markedly shifts the division of household duties at home so that it is more equal and increases relationship satisfaction. That has the potential to reduce the amount of unpaid or “invisible” labor women participate in forever. And as they say, happy wife, happy life..
4. Women earn more money. The result of more balanced households is more career persistence and the economic benefits that go along with it. The Institute for Labor Market Policy Evaluation in Sweden found that a mother’s future earnings increased an average of 7 percent for every month of leave the father took.
5. And finally, years later, our daughters participate in more demanding careers. OK this one is more anecdotal, but just last week I had the privilege of a small group discussion with three female tenured science faculty members at Harvard. All three mentioned that in their homes growing up their moms and dads divided up the household work and caregiving equally.

It’s no secret that women have a long road ahead of them in terms of closing the economic and political power gaps with men. Progress is dogged by deep cultural, social, and structural barriers including the fact that only about 40% of moms have any paid parental leave at all — forget dads. Against this sober backdrop, few solutions carry as much weight and potential for impact as how we set the tone of caregiving at the time of a child’s birth. Paid paternity leave integrates men into the home, relieving women of the stress of always managing both. It’s a backdoor approach that focuses on the responsibilities a father can take on, rather than adding to the already full plate of the working mother.

There are more mothers of young children in the workforce right now than at any time in history. And in almost half of opposite-sex marriages today, women earn the same as their husbands — or out-earn them, by an average of $53,000. Why not meet them halfway on the caregiving this Mother’s Day? And I don’t mean breakfast in bed. Commit to the moms in your life that you will push your employers to offer paid leave to mothers and fathers; and when they do, if you’re a dad: take it.