Australian companies are offering six months of paid parental leave to men and women, so why aren't more fathers taking it up?

Employers are increasingly moving away from traditional maternity leave policies, and instead offering six months of paid parental leave for a child's "primary carer".

The gender-neutral policies are intended to create options for families — fathers can take time off work as the primary carer and mothers can return to work if they choose.

But it appears men are not stepping away from their jobs to take on childrearing, particularly in the first year of their child's life.

Time at home worth more than work

When the email detailing Edith Cowan University's new parental leave policy landed in Ben Jones's inbox, he thought it was a dream come true.

The West Australian university is offering employees, both mothers and fathers, six months of parental leave — on their full wage — if they are the primary carer.

New father Ben Jones will stay at home with Angus after his employer brought in a new paid parental leave policy designed to encourage mothers back to work. ( ABC: Jon Sambell )

Mr Jones and his partner became first-time parents seven months ago when their son Angus was born.

"We had resigned ourselves that Angus would have to go to day care or his grandparents would look after him, but this means that one of his parents, that's me, gets to spend every day with him until he's one," he said.

Mr Jones said he was happy to sacrifice six months at work to spend time at home with Angus.

"These kinds of policies are not just about dads, they're about the opportunity for the other parent who is probably the main carer, which is most often the woman," he said.

"Spending six months out of the workforce is one thing, but when you spend 12 months out that's when you miss promotions or you have a gap in your resume.

"If you can spread that across both parents in the relationship, it shares the burden and means that neither is too disadvantaged."

The move away from traditional maternity leave

Edith Cowan University's senior deputy vice-chancellor professor Arshad Omari said the university changed its maternity leave policy so it was gender neutral and better supported modern families.

He said the policy supported gender equality in the workplace and the associated financial costs of backfilling an employee on six months of leave were "negligible" for a university of ECU's size.

"It's about making sure families can make a choice about what they want to do; it's not about the organisation saying it needs to be one way or the other," Professor Omari said.

"It's about flexibility and the best possible ways the university accommodates the needs of families."

Cultural changes needed for a 'more equal choice'

Chris Sutherland is the managing director of Perth-based staffing and services group Programmed which employs more than 20,000 people.

He said there were economic and cultural reasons that stopped fathers from taking time off work to become the primary carer in their child's first 12 months.

"There's nothing wrong with someone deciding to become a stay-at-home mum or stay-at-home dad, that's fantastic, but what we want to see is a more equal choice," he said.

"Most often it's the case that it's uneconomic for the parent with the higher income to become the primary carer in the family.

"Still on average there's quite a large gender pay gap, particularly in WA, which means men are earning more than women, so families choose the best economic outcome."

Programmed has a gender-neutral parental leave policy which provides the primary carer with 12 weeks of paid leave during their child's first year of life.

Mr Sutherland is also one of 32 'CEOs for Gender Equity' in WA — an initiative aimed at improving female representation on boards and the closing the gender pay gap.

He said social norms around childcare needed to change and it had to be considered normal for fathers to take on childrearing responsibilities.

"It's up to employers to think more deeply about men or women who take time to be a primary carer and not think that it puts them behind their counterparts," he said.

"When a person has a year off to become the primary carer, rather than thinking they're doing nothing, think about it as if they've gone to Harvard for a year.

"They will have a range of skills, knowledge and interactions that are useful to the firm.

"It's also up to employers to ensure that whether it's a man or a woman, if they become the primary carer, that their career options don't disappear when they return to work."

Mr Sutherland said change had to come from the top and it was up to corporate bosses to lead the way in creating cultures that were inclusive and flexible for families.

"It's not a question of a person having to fit into our system. It's a question of our system accommodating different individual requirements to meet the issues of raising a family."