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Paid Leave This Week: Twitter Dads Take Time Off; Sheryl Sandberg Gives Fatherhood a Makeover

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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.

Getty's "dad" photos move beyond stereotype.  Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In foundation partnered with Getty Images to create stock photos showing dads taking care of their children, not just playing football or drinking beer. 

Leave for fathers leads to improved maternal health. So says a United Nations–sponsored report on “The State of The World’s Fathers,” which notes that 92 countries around the world offer paternity leave—though in half those countries that leave is less than three weeks.  

The Labor Department will pay for states to research paid leave. The United States is still one of only 2 countries not to guarantee paid maternity leave, but at least the Department of Labor is now spending 1.25 million dollars to help states study the best ways to implement paid family leave policies.

Companies that do offer generous paternity leave are trying to erase the stigma. Twitter hosted a “Dads on Leave” roundtable a few weeks ago, where 20 working fathers gathered to trade tips and reassure male employees that they wouldn't be penalized for taking time off.  

More men embrace paternity leave, even if they have to use up vacation days to take it. CBS News talks to fathers who are staying home from work after childbirth—though the article still calls it an "alternate lifestyle."