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Paid Leave This Week: Swedish Dads, Baby-Free TED Talks, and the Downsides of Maternity Leave

Sean Gallup/Getty Images News

As part of our ongoing coverage of paid leave, we're rounding up the most important news from the week. Here's what you need to know about paid leave, working parents, and child care in the United States and abroad.

Can paid leave policies be too generous? Family-friendly policies in some countries outside the U.S. have succeeded in getting more women into the workplace—but may end up leaving them stuck in dead-end jobs, The New York Times writes

Swedish dads have the answer. If maternity-leave policies have a downside, then the solution may be to craft policies that push men to take off work, Slate and Quartz both argue. And as always Sweden is leading the pack: Swedish fathers already get two months of paid paternity leave, and the government just announced this week that it’s adding a third month that dads can either use or lose. 

Ideas not worth spreading. An entrepreneur who brought her five-month-old baby to the TEDWomen conference in California was asked to leave, because the event, dedicated to female empowerment, has a “no children” policy

The Obama administration stumps for paid leave. Labor Secretary Tom Perez is on a nationwide tour to promote paid family leave, stopping in Minnesota and New Hampshire

Paid leave is working in Rhode Island. It's been over a year since Rhode Island passed its family leave bill, and the state's largest employer says its been a "non-issue," while beneficiaries—about 5,000 people have taken paid leave so far—say things like, "It was just such a stress reliever, knowing there was going to be money to help us pay the bills."