Men staying at home to look after children should be cultural norm, claims minister

Fathers should demand flexible working hours after their children are born, the Minister for Women said.

Miss Harman - dubbed "Harriet Harperson" by some for her feminist views - added that mothers and fathers should both expect to spend equal amounts of time working and raising children.

Her call for fathers to work less comes amid growing pressure from ministers on mothers of young children to take jobs.

The Government says the only way for couples to ensure their family stays out of poverty is for both parents to work.

Ministers have long pressed mothers of babies to return to their jobs or find work - to the point where at one stage mothers who decline to do so were described as "a problem".

Miss Harman said: "It must be the cultural norm for both mothers and fathers to work flexibly, so they can balance earning a living while bringing up their children.

"Fathers play a vital role in bringing their children up and most want to make more time for them. And children need their dads - whether they live with them or not.

"But most fathers simply don't know or take advantage of their rights. Many men find it difficult to ask their employer to work flexibly, and we need to challenge this."

Miss Harman's remarks came as a Government-funded organisation aimed at encouraging parents to spend equal time at work and at home was relaunched.

The Fatherhood Institute was previously known as Fathers' Direct and called itself "the national information centre on fatherhood".

It now aims to "support both mothers and fathers as earners and carers and prepare boys and girls for a future shared role in caring for children".

The push from Miss Harman for fathers to stay at home comes amid growing doubts over the impact on young children when mothers go out to work.

The academic heading research into Gordon Brown's Sure Start childcare and toddler education scheme, Professor Jay Belsky, has called for tax breaks to help mothers stay at home because of evidence that children can be harmed by long hours in poor quality daycare.

Government-funded research has also raised concerns that stay-at-home fathers may not be as good for children as being reared by mothers.

The study carried out at Bristol University found that boys who spend long hours brought up by their fathers as toddlers do worse than other children when they go to school.

However, the Fatherhood Institute called for more parental leave for men and for a cut in the hours they work to allow fathers to devote more time to bringing up their children.

Director Duncan Fisher said: "Most mums have confidence in dads, and want them to play a bigger role."