Mark Zuckerberg Says He'll Take Two Months Of Paternity Leave

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will soon have another daughter, and he just announced he’ll be taking two months of paternity leave as his family transitions.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg wrote that he took two months of paternity leave when his wife, philanthropist and pediatrician Priscilla Chan, gave birth to their daughter, Max, in 2015. He plans on doing the same once Max’s sister is born, but in a slightly different way.

“This time, I’m going to take advantage of Facebook’s option to take leave in parts,” he wrote. “I’ll take a month off to be with Priscilla and the girls at the beginning, and then we’ll spend the whole month of December together as well. I’m looking forward to bonding with our new little one and taking Max on adventures.”

Facebook offers four months of paid maternity and paternity leave for its employees. When Zuckerberg announced in 2015 that he would be taking two months off to be with his family, Emily Peck, HuffPost senior reporter on business, economics and gender, explained why his leave was so significant.

“It’s really important and great that Mark Zuckerberg is making this announcement because hopefully there’s what you call a contagion effect both internally at Facebook, but then just more generally it sets the cultural tone at a different level so men feel slightly more encouraged to take leave,” she said.

Toms Shoes founder and CEO Blake Mycoskie also took parental leave when his son was born. Mycoskie told CNN he took 12 weeks off and stressed that taking time to focus on his son was not only effective for his family, but for his company, too.

“So much of our strength comes from our families, and if we’re not investing in our families, we’re not going to be strong in business or in culture,” Mycoskie said.