Paid leave: Will stronger military families mean a stronger military?

The challenge going forward, defense analysts add, is confronting the stigma that still exists, among both men and women, around actually taking the leave.

While it may not disappear completely in a fighting force, “extending parental leave to both men and women reduces an imbalance, since it’s typically women who carry that stigma,” says Katherine Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “I think it levels the playing field a bit.”

Read the full story and more from The Christian Science Monitor.