A high court in Murcia, Spain, ruled that single women are entitled to the same 32-week parental leave as couples. The solo mothers were initially entitled to only 16 weeks off work. The court observed that the mother is entitled to the parental leave that would have been due her partner – if she had one – because all babies should be treated the same, regardless of the composition of their families. This judgment was declared during the hearing of a single woman who gave birth in January 2022 and argued that her daughter was entitled to the same parental care as other babies.
The woman, identified as SPM in court documents, initially approached social services and the courts, where her request was turned down. However, the Murcia court found in her favour and decided she was due a total of 32 weeks of parental leave and support: 16 weeks for her, and 16 weeks that would have been available to her partner if she had one.
Irreplaceable Time
Speaking to El Pais, SPM said that she had brought the case because she didn’t want her daughter to be treated differently from other babies. Hearing the case, the Murcia court judge noted, "It’s obvious that the duration and intensity of the need to care for a newborn are the same, regardless of the family model into which he or she was born."
The court referred to a decision by Spain’s constitutional court, which ruled in November 2024 that children born into single-parent families should not be discriminated against or treated differently to children born into two-parent families. Her lawyer, Miguel Ángel Fructuoso, said it remained to be seen how the court would implement its decision.
SPM said she was honoured to have fought the case and to have shown that “the children of single-parent families are the same as other children." She said that she would never replace the weeks she and her daughter had lost. “All that time when my daughter needed the care to which she was entitled has gone, and the ruling can’t give it back," she told El Pais.
According to Fructuoso, his client could be compensated for the parental leave she had previously been denied. However, SPM expressed, “For me, my daughter was being discriminated against... I’m very happy that her rights have now been recognised, but, at the same time, it’s really sad that she didn’t have those rights when it mattered.”