So where I work (Canada) our company gives women 24 weeks of paid maternity leave and men 12 weeks of paternity leave, collectively called family leave. Also, Unemployment Insurance also covers a period of time up to one year (I believe) at a rate of 60% of your pay and the company tops that other portion up to 90% (iow +30%)

So, Here was my question. A man can take up to one year off for family leave, but is only paid for 12 weeks and full pay at the rest at 90% whereas a woman is paid 24 weeks full pay and the rest at 90%.

So I asked our HR rep WHY the difference.

She said that women need the extra time to recover from child birth. My response "Hold on though, if a man and a woman both take a year off wouldn't the recover of the woman also being happening the entire time OR does she just recover for 24 weeks then the rest is bonding time".

Maybe someone can explain this to me or ELI5 because frankly I don't understand it. Remember the two people I am talking about are not married to each other. IOW, a man's wife who doesn't work for the company has a baby, the man gets one year off with 12 weeks full pay , a woman in the company gets 1 year off with 24 weeks full pay.

Simply put why does someone get MORE money to recover vs bonding.