although in principle this can be taken by either the mother or the father in practice only of beneficiaries are male there is a very large gender employment gap among those with children aged in estonia european commission increasing the length of parental leave would therefore likely reduce labour market attachment among mothers and potentially have undesirable longer term impacts although parental leave of up to a year has been shown to increase mothers labour market attachment further extensions are likely to reduce wages among mothers in the longer term rossinslater therefore it has been decided to introduce an additional month of parental leave that will be available only to the father on a nontransferable basis more flexibility to allow parental leave to be used over a longer period has also been proposed