As things stand, the British government does offer a shared parental leave programme, but it’s woefully inadequate. The benefit allows couples with new babies to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory shared parental pay between them, at a paltry rate of £151.97 per week.

Unsurprisingly, this is not popular. Research by the law firm EMW showed that just 13,100 couples applied to use the scheme in 2019, about 2 per cent of those eligible. Companies need to step in and fill the gap. Some are already attempting to do so. In the UK wealthy firms such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bain & Company offer more than 25 weeks’ paid paternity leave.