#family-policy

#family-policy

For all of the professional gains women have made over the past several decades, one stubborn measure of inequality-the gender wage gap-has been especially difficult to stamp out. And it's a disparity that can be traced in large part to parenthood. In nearly every country on Earth, the arrival of children tends to coincide with a lasting drop in employment and earnings for moms but not dads.

Image: Aline Spantig/DW Guten Tag from DW's newsroom in Bonn, where there is still a lot of Christmas shopping to be done.

The French government has launched a consultation to gather the public's views on parenthood and policies related to parenthood, in an effort to understand declining fertility rates. The goal of the report is to "target the economic and socio-cultural causes that have led to a decline in the birth rate in France, but also to understand the related consequences," MP Constance de Pélichy told the French press. Anyone can take the survey (which is entirely in French).

Mr. Trump's hypocrisy is clear. While wanting to increase the number of children being born, he cuts programs to protect their health before and after birth.

Italy has enacted legislation criminalizing surrogacy universally, impacting Italian couples engaging in lawful surrogacy abroad, raising concerns of EU law violations.