Webinar – A Comparison Across Countries: How State and Federal Laws on Paid Family Leave Impact the Glass Ceiling

November 2025

The webinar explores how the “glass ceiling” continues to shape women’s professional advancement and how legal frameworks can either reinforce or dismantle structural barriers in the workplace. Through a comparative analysis of different jurisdictions, the discussion examines the impact of paid family leave, childcare legislation, gender equality policies, and representation measures on women’s access to leadership and economic participation.

The webinar considers examples from the United States, including federal family leave protections and state-level initiatives such as Oregon’s paid leave framework, before turning to international models such as the Nordic countries, Norway and France. These jurisdictions illustrate how parental leave, universal childcare, gender equality legislation and corporate board quotas may contribute to a more balanced distribution of professional and family responsibilities.

As part of the final section of the presentation, I addressed the European Union perspective, focusing on family benefits, early childhood education and care initiatives, good practices, and the remaining challenges and gaps within EU policy. This part highlighted the importance of combining legal protection with practical support mechanisms, showing that formal equality is not sufficient unless women and families can access concrete tools that make participation in the workforce genuinely possible.