Councillors could be allowed to have up to a year off work with pay after giving birth as Salford council agrees to adopt a parental leave policy for members.
Elected representatives would be entitled to up to six months maternity leave from their due date with an option to extend of up to 52 weeks, if required.
A minimum of two weeks paternity leave would also be offered to members, according to the draft policy which the local Labour group proposed to adopt.
It comes as councillors aim to remove barriers for people entering politics.
Eccles councillor Sharmina August put forward the Labour motion which calls for the parental leave policy to apply to all parents regardless of their gender as well as covering adoption leave to support those parents choosing to adopt.
She said: "We have a real democratic deficit. Only a third of councillors in the country are women and unfortunately this council falls below that threshold.
"It's important that we bring in people with a great variety of backgrounds.
"If we are to improve the lives of all the people in this great city, it starts with this motion, but does not end with it."
Labour councillor Barbara Bentham, who is the executive support member for workforce and industrial relations at Salford council, supported the motion.
She said having a parental leave policy would give current councillors, or those thinking of standing, certainty that they would receive support as new parents.
But Conservative councillor Karen Garrido, who said she supported having a parental leave policy, called for references to the Labour Party to be removed.
The motion made reference to how many Labour councillors are women and how many Labour-run local authorities and Labour groups are led by women.
It calls for Salford council to adopt the parental leave policy drafted by the Local Government Association (LGA) Labour Group's Women Taskforce.
Councillor Karen Garrido said the Conservatives were 'not really interested' in issues which she descibed as an 'internal problem' for Labour to 'grapple with'.
She pointed out that Labour-run Salford council has never had a female leader.
But her Tory group was criticised for a lack of female representation itself.
She said: "I was the one who was actually involved in burning my bra in the sixties because I felt, as a woman, when I went for a job I was told quite categorically I wouldn't be given that job even though I was best qualified.
"I am very committed to getting more women [onto the council]. And I'm sorry that more women don't come onto this council on our side. I accept that."
The Conservative amendment was rejected and the Labour motion passed.
