Article

Changes in Gender Equality? Swedish Fathers’ Parental Leave, Division of Childcare and Housework

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Abstract

Sweden is well known for its family policy and this study explores whether fathers’ parental leave is related to later division of childcare and housework. Two materials were used; a panel survey (2003, 2009) and an interview- study (2008). Respondents in the survey had their first child between the waves and the interview-study focused on parents of 2–3 year olds. The survey is analyzed by logistic regression and the interviews by grounded theory. The results indicate that when fathers took long leave parents shared both household tasks and childcare more equally after the leave. Higher expectations of sharing childcare is related to a higher share of divided childcare once becoming parents, although it seems that some tasks are more often shared than others. When the father took long leave both parents mention that the child relates to the father as much as the mother in everyday life.

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... Although access to leave benefits both mothers' and fathers' adjustment to their parental roles (Clark et al., 1997;Petts, 2018;Seward et al., 2006;Tanaka & Waldfogel, 2007), the expansion of leave to fathers may promote greater gender equality in parental roles. When fathers take longer leave, they are more involved in childcare (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). The benefits of longer leave to fathers' involvement may also be long-lasting, as Petts and Knoester (2018) found that longer paternity leave had a positive association with fathers' engagement in childcare for the first few years postpartum, not just during the short period of leave after having a child. ...
... Generally, when fathers make use of paternity leave, they are more likely to participate in childcare tasks (Seward et al., 2006;Tanaka & Waldfogel, 2007). Not only do fathers tend to engage more in childcare, but in some cases, they may take on responsibility equal to that of mothers, as Almqvist and Duvander (2014) found that Swedish fathers tended to share both childcare and household tasks more equally with mothers when they took longer paternity leave. Other research involving German fathers had similar results regarding division of labor, and even found that the uptake of leave may lead fathers to reduce their paid work hours to spend more time with their families (Bünning, 2015). ...
... Our results add novel evidence to the increasingly large body of literature substantiating the benefits of paternity leave for the coparenting relationship-the quality of which is key to the functioning of the entire family system and its members, especially children (Feinberg, 2003). Coupled with evidence indicating that paternity leave also supports greater father involvement in parenting (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Petts & Knoester, 2018), policies that expand parental leave and encourage fathers, in particular, to make greater use of leave, stand to benefit children and their parents. ...
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The current study examined associations between the length of paternity leave taken by new fathers and maternal gatekeeping behavior and attitudes (i.e., mothers’ encouragement or discouragement of fathers’ involvement in parenting). Survey data on fathers’ and mothers’ leave length, maternal gatekeeping behavior and attitudes, and psychological and demographic covariates were drawn from a longitudinal study of the transition to parenthood among a sample of 130 dual-earner, different-sex couples in the U.S. Path analysis indicated that longer paternity leave time was associated with lower maternal gateclosing behaviors and attitudes. Paternity leave length was not related to maternal gateopening behavior. Mothers’ leave time was not related to maternal gatekeeping. The use of paternity leave may benefit the coparenting relationship between mothers and fathers by reducing maternal gateclosing behaviors and attitudes, making space for fathers to be more independent and involved parents and for mothers and fathers to adopt more egalitarian parental roles.
... Longer periods of job-protected parental leave policies seem to have more negative, whereas moderate periods (around 1 year) have more positive outcomes on maternal workforce participation (reviews: Olivetti & Petrongolo, 2017;Rossin-Slater, 2018). Additionally, multiple studies show paternal leave reforms or (longer) fathers' parental leave periods are positively associated with maternal workforce participation (Patnaik, 2019), paternal childcare engagement after fathers' parental leave (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Schaber et al., 2021), and paternal housework participation (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Patnaik, 2019). Thus, fathers' parental leave taking could help parents aiming to implement the 50/50-split-model attain WF-involvement-B. ...
... Longer periods of job-protected parental leave policies seem to have more negative, whereas moderate periods (around 1 year) have more positive outcomes on maternal workforce participation (reviews: Olivetti & Petrongolo, 2017;Rossin-Slater, 2018). Additionally, multiple studies show paternal leave reforms or (longer) fathers' parental leave periods are positively associated with maternal workforce participation (Patnaik, 2019), paternal childcare engagement after fathers' parental leave (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Schaber et al., 2021), and paternal housework participation (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Patnaik, 2019). Thus, fathers' parental leave taking could help parents aiming to implement the 50/50-split-model attain WF-involvement-B. ...
... These more quantitative findings are supported by the qualitative content of the interviews (see R8). Our results are in line with prior studies (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Schaber et al., 2021 Moreover, participants who had split parental leave more egalitarian reported multiple advantages regarding WF-emotional-and WF-effective-B. These included a better fatherchild relationship (positive emotions) and better paternal ability to fulfil child-related tasks (effectiveness). ...
Article
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Work-family balance (WFB) is attained if parents combine work and family roles aligned with their values. For an egalitarian parent aiming to implement a 50/50-split-model, this means sharing paid work, childcare, and housework equally with their partner (involvement balance), performing well in all roles (effective balance), while having positive emotions (emotional balance). This is difficult since work and family are competing for time and attention. Therefore, this article presents resources which can help parents attain WFB within a 50/50-split-model. Quantitative data of n = 1036 couples participating in the Dresden Study on Parenting, Work, and Mental Health (DREAM) were used to calculate the implementation rate of the 50/50-split-model at 14 months postpartum. Quantitative DREAM data were screened to purposively select n = 25 participants implementing a 50/50-split-model for the qualitative study DREAMTALK. Problem-centered interviews were conducted and analyzed via qualitative content analysis. Quantitative results showed a 50/50-split-model implementation rate of 3.8–17.5% among German parents. Qualitative results revealed 14 individual- and eight macro-level resources to facilitate WFB within a 50/50-split-model. Individual-level examples are acknowledging benefits of childcare assistance, segmentation from paid work and controversially, in other situations, integration of paid work and family. Macro-level examples are availability of childcare assistance, of solo paternal leave, paid work < 39 h/week, employee flexibility options, and family-friendly workplace cultures. To conclude, the full potential of individual-level resources applied by parents is attained when supported by macro-level resources provided by politics and employers. Parents, politics, and employers can facilitate WFB within the 50/50-split-model to foster gender equality.
... see Karu & Tremblay, 2018;O'Brien, 2013) and evidence shows paternity or father-only parental leave can increase a father's childcare involvement not just in the immediate but also over the longer-term (e.g. see Harvey & Tremblay, 2019;Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Haas & Hwang, 1999). The Nordic countries are known as the pioneers for developing some of the most generous reconciliation measures for fathers, in the form of well-paid and non-transferable paternity or father-only parental leave (see Eydal and Rostgaard 2016). ...
... 80%+) of parental leave by fathers in Europe, and these countries are also considered the forerunners for gender equality more broadly (e.g. see Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Brandth & Kvande, 2016;Koslowski et al., 2022). The Canadian province of Québec also offers generous leave entitlements for fathers (five weeks of paternity leave paid at 75% of average weekly earnings with the option to take a further 35 weeks of parental leave), resulting in similar take-up rates (i.e. ...
... Indeed, this supports other research that shows a link between parental leave and fathers' ongoing engagement (e.g. see Harvey & Tremblay, 2019;Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Haas & Hwang, 1999). However, it is important that such leave entitlements are combined with other reconciliation measures to support fathers such as access to flexible work, curbs to long hours of paid work and good quality childcare (which primarily support the mothers' return to employment), as well as a cultural acceptance of the father's caregiver role. ...
Article
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Paternal childcare engagement is a focus of work–family policy debates yet there is little consensus about what engagement means and how it might be measured. Drawing on Lamb’s (1986) classification of paternal involvement, we run confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of two-parent households from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study to derive latent paternal engagement measures at nine months, three, five, seven and eleven years old. Structural Equation Modelling is used to explore the relationship between the engagement measures and parents’ employment hours. Employment hours have a significant association with paternal childcare engagement in the early stages of a child’s life, but it is paternal engagement in the previous time period that has a far stronger effect at every age. Specifically, paternal engagement in the first year of parenthood is important for fostering ongoing engagement until the child is at least age eleven, and this positive effect builds over time.
... The gender equality framework contained the largest number of articles (n = 11). The studies had been conducted in the Nordic countries (e.g., Almqvist & Duvander, 2014, Brandth, 2016Sevón, 2012), Austria (Mauerer & Schmidt, 2019), Canada and North America (e.g., Rehel, 2014;Beglaubter, 2017) and South America . All these studies focused on coparenting between the mother and father, and in most cases the main agent was the father or fatherto-be (e.g., Johansson, 2011aJohansson, , 2011bRehel, 2014). ...
... Almost all these articles dealt with these issues. For example, several studies (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Haas et al., 2002;Rehel, 2014) compared fathers who took parental leave for a longer period with fathers who only took it for a short period or took no leave at all. ...
... The significance of the father in coparenting was discussed in terms of father involvement in parenting and childcare (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014) or the type of masculinity the father was expected to adopt (Johansson, 2011a(Johansson, , 2011bBrandth, 2016). Some of these studies traced historical or generational changes in the father's role. ...
Article
Although primarily a practical matter in a family, coparenting is strongly modified by the existing culture and surrounding society. The development of coparenting, especially in its early stages is highly affected by existing gender ideologies, work cultures and family policies. Despite the widely agreed importance of socio-cultural embeddedness of coparenting, less is known about the interplay between coparenting systems and wider social and policy contexts. This study analyzed how existing work and family policies and underlying sets of values and beliefs frame the meaning, form, and construction of coparenting during early parenthood. To better understand how the sociocultural context frames the construction of coparenting, a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) method was applied for searching, sampling, analyzing, and synthesizing the coparenting literature. The interpretative review process included the following phases: a broadly defined search strategy, applying systematic inclusion and exclusion criteria, and conducting a descriptive mapping and an in-depth process analysis and synthesis of all the selected articles ( N = 24). The review yielded three frameworks, in which new parents construct their coparenting in diverse socio-cultural contexts: gender equality, family solidarity, and social support. The studies falling into these frameworks see the effects of the form of the coparenting relationship (parents only/parents plus) and the role of institutional support (high/low) and cultural and religious beliefs (high/low) on coparenting differently. The literature synthesis indicated that coparenting is a dynamic system in which parents and other parental figures adopt culturally appropriate practices and roles when taking care of children. These findings, which broaden the dominant western-centered perspective on coparenting, can be used in the development of family policies, services, and coparenting programs for today’s diverse, global multicultural families.
... For example, in Sweden, a quota has been introduced to give fathers access to two months of paid paternity leave that must be used in order to receive full government parenting benefits. This legislation has been clearly documented as an attempt to strengthen women's bargaining position in the workplace and increase overall gender equity (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). Evidence suggests that, especially in couples in which both parents are well-educated, fathers who take longer leaves demonstrate attitudes that reflect a strong value for shared parenting responsibility (Klinth, 2008), increased levels of father-child engagement (Brandth & Gislason, 2011;Hosking, Whitehouse, & Baxter, 2010), and more equal distribution of childcare tasks (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). ...
... This legislation has been clearly documented as an attempt to strengthen women's bargaining position in the workplace and increase overall gender equity (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). Evidence suggests that, especially in couples in which both parents are well-educated, fathers who take longer leaves demonstrate attitudes that reflect a strong value for shared parenting responsibility (Klinth, 2008), increased levels of father-child engagement (Brandth & Gislason, 2011;Hosking, Whitehouse, & Baxter, 2010), and more equal distribution of childcare tasks (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). Data collected in the United States shows that when fathers take company-sponsored paternity leave, the vast majority (over 90%) spend time providing direct care to children, and over 80% spend some of their time helping with the household (Harrington, Van Deusen, Fraone, Eddy, & Haas, 2014). ...
... As Kotsadam and Finseraas (2011) find, cultural norms seem to support these policies. Fathers in these nations have relatively high levels of uptake for leaves, and take longer leaves on average than fathers in other countries (Brandth & Kvandt, 2014;Duvander 2014;Salmi & Lammi-Taskula, 2014 ). In France (Fagnani, Boyer, & Thévenon, 2014), Poland (Michon, Kotowska, & Kurowska, 2014), Slovenia (Stropnik, 2014), Spain (Escobedo, Meil, & Lapuerta, 2014), and the United Kingdom (O'Brien, Koslowski, & Daly, 2014), fathers took advantage of the very generous paternity policies at high rates as well. ...
... Fathers' parental leave impacts, care, and gender equality: concepts and measurements Fields of scholarship that link fathering, parental leave, care, and gender equality measure changes using different methodologies and units of analysis: quantitative surveys to analyze contributions of time to childcare (and sometimes housework) tasks (Haas and Hwang, 2008;Petts and Knoester, 2018), birth cohort data (Huerta et al., 2014;Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel, 2007), policy analysis of national reforms (Duvander et al., 2005;Duvander and Johansson, 2019), time use studies or diaries (Hosking et al., 2010;Meil, 2013), qualitative research interviews with couples (Almqvist and Duvander, 2014;Farstad, 2015;O'Brien and Twamley, 2017;Rehel, 2014), and qualitative interviews with fathers Eerola, 2014;G ıslason, 2017;Kvande and Brandth, 2017;Meil et al., 2017). Within research on the connections between fathers' leave time and gender equality, we identify three recurring, intersecting, and at times contradictory arguments. ...
... First, many studies argue that taking leave-time encourages fathers to be involved in care work after their leave time, thus enhancing gender equality in caregiving at home (e.g. Almqvist and Duvander, 2014;Haas and Hwang, 2008;Meil, 2013;Petts and Knoester, 2018). Yet, as indicated in O'Brien and Twamley's (2017) thorough review, "not all the literature reports that male parental leave has a positive impact on [men's] participation in childcare" (see also Haas and Hwang, 2008). ...
... Second, the relationship between fathers' leave time and more egalitarian divisions of routine household work remains inconclusive. Across countries such as Sweden (Almqvist and Duvander, 2014), Norway (Kvande and Brandth, 2017), Iceland (G ıslason, 2017), and Spain (Meil, 2013), care tasks and/or time were found to become more equally shared when men take parental leave, whereas housework tasks and/or time remain heavily gendered. At the same time, some studies from Sweden do suggest that gendered responsibilities for housework shift when fathers take longer leaves (Almqvist and Duvander, 2014). ...
... 64 The new ilc members were elected in November 2021 and five women will start their mandate in 2023. 65 The imbalance of representation was highlighted by representatives of regional groups before the elections. 66 Pinto, a former member of the ilc, recently stressed the need to 'encourage states to reach parity 59 Gulay 64 See the website of the International Law Commission <https:// legal.un.org/ ilc/ ilcme mbe .shtml> ...
... accessed 29 November 2021. 65 See 66 In the list of candidates out of 42 candidates, only 8 were women. Fornalé when proposing candidates' . ...
... And yet there are measures that could help secure better outcomes, as shown by the gender tracker of undp and UN Women70 and unesco's summary of gender-sensitive measures regarding education in the context of covid-19.71 65 UN Women, 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19' <https:// www.unwo men.org/ en/ digi tal-libr ary/ publi cati ons/ 2020/ 09/ gen der-equal ity-in-the -wake-of-covid-19> accessed 29 covid-19 recovery measures are linked to the implementation of the sdg s and face the same obstacles: i.e. lack of will, knowledge, awareness and financing. ...
... 64 The new ilc members were elected in November 2021 and five women will start their mandate in 2023. 65 The imbalance of representation was highlighted by representatives of regional groups before the elections. 66 Pinto, a former member of the ilc, recently stressed the need to 'encourage states to reach parity 59 Gulay 64 See the website of the International Law Commission <https:// legal.un.org/ ilc/ ilcme mbe .shtml> ...
... accessed 29 November 2021. 65 See 66 In the list of candidates out of 42 candidates, only 8 were women. Fornalé when proposing candidates' . ...
... And yet there are measures that could help secure better outcomes, as shown by the gender tracker of undp and UN Women70 and unesco's summary of gender-sensitive measures regarding education in the context of covid-19.71 65 UN Women, 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19' <https:// www.unwo men.org/ en/ digi tal-libr ary/ publi cati ons/ 2020/ 09/ gen der-equal ity-in-the -wake-of-covid-19> accessed 29 covid-19 recovery measures are linked to the implementation of the sdg s and face the same obstacles: i.e. lack of will, knowledge, awareness and financing. ...
... 64 The new ilc members were elected in November 2021 and five women will start their mandate in 2023. 65 The imbalance of representation was highlighted by representatives of regional groups before the elections. 66 Pinto, a former member of the ilc, recently stressed the need to 'encourage states to reach parity 59 Gulay 64 See the website of the International Law Commission <https:// legal.un.org/ ilc/ ilcme mbe .shtml> ...
... accessed 29 November 2021. 65 See 66 In the list of candidates out of 42 candidates, only 8 were women. Fornalé when proposing candidates' . ...
... And yet there are measures that could help secure better outcomes, as shown by the gender tracker of undp and UN Women70 and unesco's summary of gender-sensitive measures regarding education in the context of covid-19.71 65 UN Women, 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19' <https:// www.unwo men.org/ en/ digi tal-libr ary/ publi cati ons/ 2020/ 09/ gen der-equal ity-in-the -wake-of-covid-19> accessed 29 covid-19 recovery measures are linked to the implementation of the sdg s and face the same obstacles: i.e. lack of will, knowledge, awareness and financing. ...
... 64 The new ilc members were elected in November 2021 and five women will start their mandate in 2023. 65 The imbalance of representation was highlighted by representatives of regional groups before the elections. 66 Pinto, a former member of the ilc, recently stressed the need to 'encourage states to reach parity 59 Gulay 64 See the website of the International Law Commission <https:// legal.un.org/ ilc/ ilcme mbe .shtml> ...
... accessed 29 November 2021. 65 See 66 In the list of candidates out of 42 candidates, only 8 were women. Fornalé when proposing candidates' . ...
... And yet there are measures that could help secure better outcomes, as shown by the gender tracker of undp and UN Women70 and unesco's summary of gender-sensitive measures regarding education in the context of covid-19.71 65 UN Women, 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19' <https:// www.unwo men.org/ en/ digi tal-libr ary/ publi cati ons/ 2020/ 09/ gen der-equal ity-in-the -wake-of-covid-19> accessed 29 covid-19 recovery measures are linked to the implementation of the sdg s and face the same obstacles: i.e. lack of will, knowledge, awareness and financing. ...
... 64 The new ilc members were elected in November 2021 and five women will start their mandate in 2023. 65 The imbalance of representation was highlighted by representatives of regional groups before the elections. 66 Pinto, a former member of the ilc, recently stressed the need to 'encourage states to reach parity 59 Gulay 64 See the website of the International Law Commission <https:// legal.un.org/ ilc/ ilcme mbe .shtml> ...
... accessed 29 November 2021. 65 See 66 In the list of candidates out of 42 candidates, only 8 were women. Fornalé when proposing candidates' . ...
... And yet there are measures that could help secure better outcomes, as shown by the gender tracker of undp and UN Women70 and unesco's summary of gender-sensitive measures regarding education in the context of covid-19.71 65 UN Women, 'From Insights to Action: Gender Equality in the Wake of COVID-19' <https:// www.unwo men.org/ en/ digi tal-libr ary/ publi cati ons/ 2020/ 09/ gen der-equal ity-in-the -wake-of-covid-19> accessed 29 covid-19 recovery measures are linked to the implementation of the sdg s and face the same obstacles: i.e. lack of will, knowledge, awareness and financing. ...
... Taking parental leave increases the amount of participation in childcare [3,4]. This effect persists even when fathers are back at work [4][5][6]. Fathers report on having a closer emotional bond with their child and on feeling more responsible for their child's care after taking parental leave [5]. Additionally, they feel more competent and secure in raising their child [7]. ...
... This effect persists even when fathers are back at work [4][5][6]. Fathers report on having a closer emotional bond with their child and on feeling more responsible for their child's care after taking parental leave [5]. Additionally, they feel more competent and secure in raising their child [7]. ...
... Additionally, they feel more competent and secure in raising their child [7]. One important caveat to these results seems to be the length of parenting leave taken by the father, with positive outcomes being more likely and persistent for longer parenting leave [5,8,9]. However, it is unclear whether participating in parenting leave leads to decreases in parenting stress, which has been clearly identified as one important risk factor for child development, especially during the first few years of life [10][11][12]. ...
Article
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The German version of the Parenting stress Index from Abidin, the Eltern-Belastungs-Inventar (EBI) merely provides reference samples of 538 mothers of children in toddlers and preschool age. Although meant to measure parenting stress, there are no father specific reference samples provided. The aim was to investigate differences in parenting stress between fathers and the provided reference samples of German mothers. Furthermore, the aim was to examine potential differences in the perceived stress between fathers who did and those who did not take parental leave. A total of 497 fathers living in Germany, of which more than half took parental leave, filled out the questionnaire via an online survey or the paper-pencil-version. All fathers completed the EBI and provided socio-economic data. The collected data were analyzed in terms of test quality, such as mean and standard deviation, corrected item–total correlation and reliability. Moreover, differences between the provided norm data and our sample were calculated. Analyses showed that fathers reported significantly higher levels of parenting stress than mothers. Furthermore, fathers taking parental leave did not differ significantly from those who did not, regarding their level of education or their perceived parenting stress. In conclusion, as it stands right now, the EBI does not adequately measure parenting stress in fathers, and father specific norms are needed to properly assess their levels of parenting stress. The results concerning parenting stress and parental leave were thus inconclusive. Furthermore, since reducing parenting stress in fathers is beneficial for the child’s development and the welfare of the parents, further studies focusing on fathers’ parenting stress are needed.
... The literature assumes parental leave policies to have significant effects on fathers' behavior (Rubery, 2015), as they can attract non-carers into caregiving roles (Ciccia & Verloo, 2012, p. 508). Studies show that the specific design of these policies is the only known approach that effectively increases the time fathers spend on caregiving (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Arnalds et al., 2022;Bünning, 2015;Castro-García & Pazos-Moran, 2016;Dearing, 2016;Doucet & McKay, 2020;Huerta et al., 2014;Meil, 2013;Patnaik, 2019;Ray et al., 2010;Rubery, 2015;Schober & Zoch, 2019;Tamm, 2019). ...
... On the one hand, it is crucial for mothers' future labor market participation that they do not stay away for too long (Ferragina, 2019a). On the other hand, this first phase is a time to deepen responsibilities at home and lay the foundations for parents' new roles, which is crucial for fathers' future involvement in care work (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Bünning, 2015). Although a targeted parental leave policy with a daddy quota and a high wage replacement is essential to the shift to the universal caregiver model, as opposed to the universal breadwinner paradigm, research should progress to include other family policies, such as childcare services, and other policy areas, such as the labor market and taxes. ...
Article
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The question which policy measures facilitate greater paternal participation in childcare and promote the universal caregiver model (as opposed to the universal breadwinner model) remains a prominent topic of debate. Determining the extent to which states implement such policies is equally crucial. This paper analyzes which policies differentiate these two family models and foster the paternal shift from breadwinning to caregiving. To this end, an analytical grid is developed to identify a parental leave policy that is genuinely egalitarian in design. Two newly created indices within this grid distinguish between the egalitarian policy potential and a traditional uptake of leave. The analysis grid is then empirically tested on twenty countries. This qualitative, case-specific assessment approach identifies examples of egalitarianism-enhancing policies. However, as the differences between the two indices suggest , the flexibility in leave take-up between parents leaves the potential of these policies largely untapped.
... Spain has led Europe in terms of progressive paid parental leave with the implementation of father-exclusive leave, which saves a fully compensated period exclusive to the father. Fathers' leave uptake may promote gender equality (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Dearing, 2016;Doucet & McKay, 2020), which would bring changes in gender roles (Hart et al., 2022) and bargaining power modifications among members (Arnalds et al., 2021), potentially ending in a variation in the household decision-making environment. Several family dynamics may be affected, such as fertility choices. ...
... Overall, research indicates that father engagement significantly complies with state signals. There is an increase in the use of parental leave in Sweden, Norway, Spain, the US, and Canada (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Bartel et al., 2017;Cools et al., 2015;Dahl et al., 2014;Duvander & Johansson, 2012;Farré & González, 2019;Patnaik, 2019), but there is room for a labeling effect; fathers just take the share that is "labeled" for them (Patnaik, 2019). There are mixed results in terms of how father-exclusive benefits affect fertility across countries. ...
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Using national birth records from Spain, we examine the effect of father-exclusive parental leave on fertility. To do so, we run a Bayesian structural time series analysis exploiting the 2-week leave introduction and extensions up to 8 weeks. This methodology allows us to construct a time counterfactual to track the policy effect over time. We find suggestive evidence that, overall, father-exclusive parental leave does not affect the fertility rate of women of childbearing age. But we identify a heterogeneous policy effect once we disentangle the effect by birth order. The birth count of first- and second-order births does not report a change over time with respect to any of the leave entitlements. In contrast, linked to the 4-week extension, higher-order births exhibit a positive effect consolidated over time. With the 4-week benefit implementation, third- and higher-order births increase, on average, by 0.8% and 1.1%. The analysis provides useful policy insights into how work-life reconciliation policies that call active fatherhood can promote fertility. JEL classification— J08, J13, D13, I12, H31
... Legislation designed to achieve a more gender unbiased result would certainly facilitate the opportunity for a better work-life balance. These changes have already been implemented in different countries where parental leaves have been spread towards the couple and no longer only to the women [20]. Initiatives to facilitate breastfeeding at work or childcare facilities at work can also help support a more family friendly environment. ...
... Spreading awareness of gender disparity is the first step to promote diversity and equity. The introduction of a code of conduct, including pledges to have no all-male panels and to invite an equal percentage of women and men as speakers could bring positive results [20]. Women comprised 29% of keynote speakers at Nature Conferences between 2016 and 2018 and that number increased to 48% in the 20 meetings that took place in 2020 and 2021 after the introduction of the code of conduct [21]. ...
Article
Objective To evaluate gender representation among session leaders and abstract presenters at European Cardio-thoracic surgical annual meetings. Methods This is a descriptive study of the gender distribution among session leaders and abstract presenters at 2 European Cardio-thoracic international meetings from 2017 to 2022. Data from publicly available programs were used to generate a list of session leaders and abstract presenters. The primary outcome was to evaluate the proportion of female sessions leaders at annual meetings. Descriptive analyses were performed including Cochran-Armitage trend test for linear trend of proportions. Results A total of 1025 sessions of 11 annual meetings of the EACTS and ESTS were examined. 397 (13,2%) out of 3007 total session leaders and 955 (15,2%) out of 6251 abstract presenters were female. From 2017 to 2022 the proportions of both female session leaders and abstract presenters trended significantly (10,4% to 21,9% (p < 0.001) and 13,7% to 18.3% (p < 0.001), respectively). EACTS female members and female meeting attendance significantly increase from 2017 to 2022 (11,1% to 15,9% (p < 0.001), and 23,7% to 26,9% (p < 0.001), respectively. Most of women attendees at EACTS and ESTS meetings as session leaders and speakers came from Germany, Italy, UK and USA. Conclusions Women are underrepresented compared to men in leadership and speaking roles at European Cardiothoracic surgical annual meetings. In the last years an encouraging positive trend over time for female leadership roles has been shown and as a result the proportion of female society members is represented at the annual meetings. Related to the genders of attendees at the meetings, there is still a substantial gender gap in leading roles.
... Parental leave studies, now a massive international field, repeatedly affirms strong connections between fathers' leave time from paid work to care for children and increased gendered sharing of household work and childcare tasks (e.g., Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Haas & Hwang, 2008;Petts & Knoester, 2018). Yet, in many countries, including Canada, paid parental leave is not available to all parents and policy design restricts fathers' take up of paid leave time. ...
... Our findings also support the idea that men who take longer parental leaves (i.e., greater than three months in our study) are highly involved in indirect forms of caregiving such as cooking and preparing meals, daily kitchen cleaning, cleaning other parts of the house, laundry, shopping for groceries, paying bills, and home maintenance. The survey data thus support a wellestablished body of international work that links fathers' leaves with high involvement in both direct and indirect care tasks, while also providing a contrast to research that indicated high involvement in childcare (direct care) and less in household work (indirect care) (e.g., Almqvist and Duvander, 2014;Gıslason, 201;Kvande and Brandth, 2017;Meil, 2013). ...
Article
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Gender equality within and between paid and unpaid work has long been recognized as a key work-family justice issue. This article explores two policy pathways, which are often examined separately by researchers—parental leave and flexible work—and examines them as complementary policy interventions aimed at promoting gender equality in unpaid care and household work. Drawing on Canadian data from the 2021 International Familydemic Survey, we examine the relationship between fathers’ previous use of parental leave, and current use of flexible work arrangements (flextime and remote work), and their involvement in care work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings support the following three arguments: First, in numerous countries, including Canada, where socially exclusive policy designs can limit fathers’ take up of leave, flexible work arrangements can provide additional opportunities to increase fathering involvement beyond the early months of parenting. Second, our data indicate that unpaid care work sharing is enhanced by fathers’ parental leaves and flexible working; however, fathers who have taken parental leave report dividing a wider set of household work and care tasks with their partners. Third, although their policy designs, aims, and legislation architectures differ in Canada, we maintain that parental leaves and flexible work arrangements are both more than employment policies; they are care/work policies that enact “social care” and “democratic care,” and support gender equality and work-family justice goals.
... Using time for care is considered a key indicator for measuring gender equality in feminist theory, as reflected by the distribution of paid and unpaid work (Eydal et al., 2018). Having more days of paid parental leave (PPL) usually implies more time spent on childcare afterward (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014). Fern andez-Cornejo et al. (2016) measured how using more days of parental leave (PL) was related to greater involvement in childcare over the 2 first years of a child's life in Spain, as is the case in Iceland (Arnalds et al., 2013). ...
... The number of days used by fathers and mothers and the impact of this duration on their subsequent involvement in childcare are key to evaluating the PLS and its effects on gender equality in family dynamics and the job market. The initial care period affects bonding and fathers' care involvement, which lasts over time (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Fern andez-Cornejo et al., 2016;Haas & Rostgaard, 2011). An increase in men using the PLS goes against traditional gender roles. ...
Article
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Objective The article evaluates the 2007 introduction of nontransferable and fully paid paternity leave in Spain. Background Previous research has focused on paternity leave reforms, especially in the Nordic and continental countries. This article studies characteristics of the parental leave system design, including transferability, payment, and purpose of different types of leave for mothers and fathers in a Mediterranean country. Method We use a quasi‐experimental approach based on a sample of heterosexual dual‐earner couples with children born before and after the paternity leave introduction. We estimate differences in differences regression models. Results The 2007 reform caused a significant increase in fathers' number of days of parental leave. Most fathers used the whole nontransferable and fully paid paternity leave, but they hardly used transferable or unpaid leave. Mothers used all of these, especially paid leave. Conclusion The number of nontransferable fully paid days of parental leave provided by law approximates the actual number of days most fathers used. Implications The policy design matters. A design of equal, nontransferable, and fully paid leave for each parent is necessary for equal use by fathers and mothers—and thus for gender equality in families and work.
... Se observa que el uso de permisos más largos por parte de los padres favorece su mayor implicación en el cuidado posteriormente (Almqvist y Duvander, 2014;Arnalds et al., 2013;Duvander y Jans, 2008;Fernández-Cornejo et al., 2016, 2018Kotsadam y Finseraas, 2011) y esta mayor implicación reduce la penalización por maternidad (Johansson, 2010;Fernández-Cornejo et al., 2018). Este efecto duradero es debido a que el periodo inicial de cuidado afecta al vínculo entre padres e hijos y a su participación en el cuidado (Almqvist y Duvander, 2014;Fernandez-Cornejo et al., 2016;Haas y Rostgaard, 2011). ...
... Se observa que el uso de permisos más largos por parte de los padres favorece su mayor implicación en el cuidado posteriormente (Almqvist y Duvander, 2014;Arnalds et al., 2013;Duvander y Jans, 2008;Fernández-Cornejo et al., 2016, 2018Kotsadam y Finseraas, 2011) y esta mayor implicación reduce la penalización por maternidad (Johansson, 2010;Fernández-Cornejo et al., 2018). Este efecto duradero es debido a que el periodo inicial de cuidado afecta al vínculo entre padres e hijos y a su participación en el cuidado (Almqvist y Duvander, 2014;Fernandez-Cornejo et al., 2016;Haas y Rostgaard, 2011). El tiempo proporcionado por los permisos para cuidar ayuda a crear competencias y confianza en la capacidad de cuidar de los padres (Hosking et al., 2010). ...
... Moreover, Bünning (2015) found that only fathers who took long solo leave increased their participation in housework in Germany. The use of (longer) parental leave by fathers also leads to a more equal division of childcare and housework (Almqvist and Duvander 2014;Schober and Zoch 2019;Tamm 2019), although this can be dependent on the interplay of partner and work factors (Schadler et al. 2017). ...
Article
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This systematic literature review assesses two decades of the literature on paternity and parental leave for fathers. We developed a conceptual framework that broadens the understanding of why fathers (do not) use paternity and/or parental leave, and the outcomes of men’s leave uptake for fathers, families, and society. Drawing on Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory, we use social, economic, and cultural capital as sensitizing concepts in our analysis. Regarding contextual circumstances, paternity and parental leave most often appear to be used by fathers with higher levels of economic, cultural, and social capital, and with a stronger father identity. With regard to consequences of taking leave, the literature suggests that fathers are not only affected at the micro level (e.g., in their paternal involvement) but also at the meso level (relationship with partner and children) with (potential) consequences at the societal level. We welcome family researchers to further develop and test our conceptual framework when studying the contexts and consequences of paternity leave and parental leave for fathers.
... The trend observed in the past decades has been to encourage greater participation of fathers in early childcare through bonuses for fathers or non-transferable parental leave entitlements and dedicated paternity leaves (Daly, 2020). However, the availability of leave entitlements alone does not guarantee an increase in the take-up of leave by fathers, which is determined by a range of micro, meso and macro factors (Chapman et al., 2022), such as individual income, parent's joint income and the support and attitudes at their workplace (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Duvander & Johansson, 2012). Following the European Child Guarantee objectives, ECEC has become increasingly important among EU countries. ...
Technical Report
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This discussion paper presents an overview of key challenges and trends in the UNECE region in four policy areas relevant to the Social Protection and Inclusion Research team at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research: 1) Social assistance and minimum income policies, 2) Child and family policies, 3) Disability policies and social support services, and 4) Housing policies. The discussion paper identifies research needs and future perspectives on policy directions to ensure social inclusion for all through resilient social protection systems amid ongoing crises framed by megatrends. Synergies between different policy areas, such as between the economy, social affairs, employment, education and health policies, as well as between distinct levels of governance and types of support (monetary and non-monetary), are key. Strong partnerships among stakeholders to implement tailor-made and human rights-based solutions are needed to improve policy outcomes and decrease inequalities.
... However, without a fundamental shift in gender norms, paternity leave may negatively impact the distribution of unpaid care work. In communities with entrenched traditional gender roles, men on paternity leave may engage in caregiving but primarily focus on activities such as playing and bonding with children, rather than on essential caregiving tasks like feeding or bathing (Almqvist and Duvander, 2014). Consequently, without a more egalitarian view of gender roles, such policies are unlikely to change the types of tasks men undertake, leaving the primary responsibility of domestic work with women (Craig and Mullan, 2011). ...
Article
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Using the most recent wave of Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey data from 2023, this paper provides an overview of the gender gap in unpaid care work and how it relates to labor market outcomes. With the inclusion of a 24-hour time use module in ELMPS 2023, we are able to examine women's time use in terms of unpaid care work and paid employment activities relative to their male counterparts, taking into account their socioeconomic profiles. The paper concludes by delving into perceptions and attitudes regarding gender norms, and how they correlate with women’s time use patterns in Egypt. Results show that compared with men, women spent a disproportionate amount of time on unpaid care work in Egyptian households. Marriage and childbearing were associated with longer hours dedicated to unpaid care work activities. Employed women faced a double burden of having to balance their paid and unpaid work commitments, with married women who were wage employed being the most heavily penalized. Finally, our analysis of the correlation between gender norms and time use patterns shows that more egalitarian gender norms did not necessarily translate into a lower gender gap in the actual time spent on unpaid care work.
... Currently, research on parental leave and workplace flexibility has become a growing international topic of study. This consistently shows a strong association between fathers' time off from paid work to care for children and also an increase in the more equitable distribution of household chores and childcare between the sexes (e.g., Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;; However, in reality, in many countries, including Indonesia, the flexibility fathers have to take paid parental leave is not available to all parents, and public policies limit fathers' opportunities to take leave paid. Yet, research shows that parents often require more flexible working arrangements, both in terms of time and location, according to their childcare needs (e.g. ...
Article
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Father involvement has a positive impact on children's cognitive, emotional and social development. However, the level of this involvement is low in the Asian context, particularly in Indonesia, where traditional gender roles often reduce paternal involvement. The role of fathers in children's development is increasingly recognized, but there remains a research gap in understanding how factors such as marital satisfaction and workplace flexibility jointly influence fathers' involvement. This research aims to determine the moderating role of workplace flexibility on the relationship between marital satisfaction and father involvement with surveyed fathers who work at Company"X", have children aged 1-21, live with their children and their wife. This research was conducted to 123 respondents. Measurement tools used in the research include the Father Involvement Inventory (IFI), the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale, and the Workplace Flexibility Scale. Each measurement instrument has been tested for validity and reliability. The data analysis technique used is Moderation Process Analysis: Model 1 of Hayes (2013) using the SPSS Statistics program version 29. Based on the hypothesis testing results, there is a significant role of marital satisfaction on father involvement at 33%, but workplace flexibility does not moderate the relationship between marital satisfaction and father involvement. Demographic factors in this research also do not play a role in father involvement. These findings highlight the important role of marital satisfaction in promoting fathers' active participation, suggesting that improving marital relationships may be more effective than simply increasing workplace flexibility in encouraging fathers to become involved with their children. These results could also be interesting for exploring other factors likely to predict father involvement.
... Parental leave, and specifically men's increased take-up of parental leave, is considered a potentially transformative policy measure for tackling these gendered inequalities (Gornick & Meyers, 2009). Men's participation in parental leave is associated with greater involvement in childcare, and to a lesser extent housework, after the leave period ends (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Eerola, Närvi & Lammi-Taskula, 2022;Haas & Hwang, 2008;Meil, 2013;Rehel, 2014;Schober, 2014;Seward et al., 2006). There are also observed benefits for women's career outcomes. ...
... Several affluent countries have made substantial progress in establishing equitable and comprehensive parental leave laws. Sweden and Norway have developed progressive policies that offer substantial parental leave to both mothers and fathers, with the goal of equalizing caregiving obligations and advancing gender equality (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014; Brandth & Kvande, 2019). These laws demonstrate a society's commitment to strengthening family units and ensuring the equal participation of both parents in childrearing. ...
Article
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This study examines the disparities and societal beliefs around paternal leave in the Nigerian Civil Service, highlighting the notable disparity between laws and actual implementation in relation to gender norms and family dynamics. Despite the perception of Nigeria as a supportive environment for fathers, the research reveals a significant disparity in leave entitlements between fathers and mothers, with fathers receiving significantly less time off. The study uses qualitative interview data analysis to investigate the effects of these rules on dads' engagement in caring activities and their perceived obligations in both household and workplace contexts. The key topics addressed encompass inequitable leave legislation, sociological and cultural issues, and considerations about the benefits and usage of paternal leave. The results emphasize the need for policy changes that are in line with changing family dynamics and promote equal parental participation. The paper examines Nigeria's paternal leave regulations in relation to those of more progressive countries, contributing to the worldwide discussion on the importance of implementing supportive familial leave policies that promote gender equality and strengthen the link between fathers and children. The study seeks to educate policymakers and stakeholders about the crucial significance of fair and inclusive parental leave policies in promoting a harmonious, just, and forward-thinking society
... In addition, men's increased care engagement can have benefits on various levels, for example, for their own well-being, their partners' career advancement, and their children's developmental outcomes (for an overview, see Croft et al., 2015;Meeussen et al., 2020). Men's parental leave-taking specifically can lead to fathers being more involved in childcare later on (Meil, 2013;Almqvist and Duvander, 2014;Bünning, 2015;Petts and Knoester, 2018). ...
Article
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Despite continuing progress, men remain underrepresented in childcare, domestic labor, and other care work. Because parental leave is discussed as a gateway to increasing men’s childcare engagement, we aimed to gain insights into predictors of men’s parental leave-taking intentions during the transition to parenthood. Using outcomes on a continuum from behavioral preferences to more behavior-oriented measures, we examine how masculinity and fatherhood beliefs as well as social support become relevant during men’s formation of their leave-taking intentions. Planned analyses of data collected from 143 expectant fathers in Belgium and Germany revealed that the support men perceive from their partners for taking leave predicts their parental leave-taking desire, intention, and planned length of leave. Moreover, men’s conception of a prototypical man, especially in terms of agency, was linked to their desire to take leave. Against expectations, father role attitudes and workplace support did not emerge as relevant predictors of men’s intended leave-taking. Results of exploratory analyses suggest that care engagement of peers, expected backlash, and self-efficacy beliefs additionally play a role in men’s intended leave-taking. We discuss parental leave as a negotiation process within couples and review the role of men’s normative environment for their intended leave-taking.
... As fathers' leave uptake potentially entails multiple dividends 1 regarding involved fathering, child development, household gender equality and maternal employment (e.g. Bünning, 2015;Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Haas & Hwang, 2008;Pragg & Knoester, 2017;Spiess & Wrohlich, 2008;Wilson & Prior, 2011), policy-makers voice concerns about fathers' low uptake. ...
Article
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Policy-makers in many countries increasingly voice concerns about fathers’ low uptake of parental leave, given numerous potential dividends regarding children’s development, fathers’ wellbeing, and household gender equality. In response, scholars have put forward complementary ideological, policy-related, or economic explanations for fathers’ parental leave uptake. With respect to the latter, the so-called relative resources hypothesis assumes that gender inequality in leave uptake reflects within-couple gender differences in wage potential, and predicts higher leave uptake amongst secondary earner fathers. This mixed methods study is the first to combine longitudinal administrative data for 1810 parent couples with 22 in-depth individual and couple interviews, to (I) quantify the significance and magnitude of the relative resources pattern in leave-taking, (II) provide qualitative process knowledge on how the relative resources mechanism operates, and (III) test moderations of the relative resources hypothesis. Findings indicate that the relative resources mechanism affects male leave uptake significantly and both through unitary decision-making and bargaining between partners, but also that the positive effect of being a secondary earner on fathers’ leave uptake is weakened in case of imperfect information, restrictive workplace factors, limited household income, and gendered parenting ideals. These findings suggest that the increasing prevalence of female main earner households will not automatically yield gender equality in parental leave uptake, and might inspire policy makers to enhance public knowledge on parental leave systems, workplace support for leave uptake in male-dominated sectors of employment, and address inclusiveness of leave schemes to households with lower incomes.
... Unlike maternal and paternal leave schemes that target one parent, parental leave is designed to be used by mothers and fathers to share care responsibilities. Evidence shows that fathers' leave take-up increases their involvement in childcare and housework, and these effects persist after several years (Tamm, 2019;Almqvist and Duvander, 2014;Schober, 2014;Kotsadam and Finseraas, 2011). Moreover, father involvement in childcare has positive effects on a child's cognitive and non-cognitive development (Cano et al., 2019;Lamb, 2010;Cabrera et al., 2007;Amato and Rivera, 1999), on the mental well-being of both mother and child (Twamley et al., 2013), and on gender equity (Evertsson et al., 2018;Coltrane, 1996). ...
... To further reduce the risk of bias, a few recent longitudinal studies applied fixed-effects panel models or change score models. One study for Sweden and two studies for Germany found that fathers' leave take-up was associated with a shift towards a less traditional division of childcare and sometimes also housework (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Bünning, 2015;Schober & Zoch, 2019). For Germany, Tamm (2019) used father fixed-effects models for a sample of fathers who had a first child before the 2007 parental leave reform and a subsequent child after the reform. ...
Chapter
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Statutory parenting leave policies in high-income countries have been subject to numerous reforms, with a general trend towards increasing leave provision for fathers. Simultaneously, promoting gender equality by increasing maternal employment and fathers’ involvement in childcare has become a more important policy goal of parenting leave policies (Gornick & Meyers, 2003). In this chapter, we contribute to the literature by collating, summarizing, and discussing existing empirical findings on the relationship between statutory parenting leave policies – i.e., maternity, paternity, and general parental leave – and parental labour market outcomes, the gender division of family work, and gender norms. To this end, we conduct a literature review of studies published in international journals during the period 1990–2020. We substantively complement a recent review on family policy and female employment by Ferragina (2020) in several ways by focusing solely on parenting leave as one area of family policy and covering a broader range of parental practices and gender norms. Specifically, we focus on the labour market participation and careers of mothers and fathers and their involvement in family work. As many scholars have emphasized the legitimizing and norm-setting role of such family policies (e.g., Schober, 2014; Gangl & Ziefle, 2015), we also summarize the small number of studies investigating effects on beliefs and norms regarding the gender division of labour. We take an interdisciplinary approach and consider cross-country comparative as well as national case studies. We critically review the analytical extent to which previous studies suggested plausible causal chains of mechanisms for how parenting leave policies relate to our outcomes of interest
... Men who excel in their roles as caregivers of CLWCPs can be recognized as community champions to encourage involvement of other men. Finally, policies around caring for CLWCPs could benefit from adopting gender equality approaches that encourage male involvement in childcare [70][71][72][73]. ...
Article
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Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience profound health and social inequities. While challenges faced by children living with disabilities and their caregivers have been widely documented, little is known about barriers faced by healthcare providers (HCPs) who serve these children. This study seeks to understand the barriers to testing, diagnosing, referral, and treatment of children living with cerebral palsy (CLWCP) from the perspectives of HCPs in Ghana. This qualitative study was conducted in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. A snowball sampling strategy was used to recruit HCPs from major hospitals, education centers, and health facilities. Data were collected through 11 semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) with HCPs. Using an adapted version of the Sweat & Denison socio-ecological framework (SDSF), barriers to providing healthcare to CLWCPs were organized into superstructural, structural, environmental, relational, individual, and technological levels. We found that barriers to providing healthcare to CLWCPs exist at all levels of the adapted framework. The most salient barriers were identified at the superstructural, structural, and environmental levels. All HCPs expressed frustration with Ghana’s health insurance policies and inadequacies of the health systems infrastructures, such as patient assessment rooms, health information systems, and pharmaceutical products for CP care. HCPs also reported that disability-related stigma often discourages providers in training from specializing in the area of developmental disabilities. HCPs emphasized critical challenges related to local perceptions of disability, gender norms and ideologies, and health system policies and infrastructure. Findings highlight the importance of identifying multi-level factors that can influence testing, diagnosing, referral, treatment, and provision of care for CLWCPs in Ghana. Addressing identified challenges from each level of influence may improve CLWCP’s experiences throughout the care continuum.
... While the change in use of parental leave is impressive, the secondary goals of gender equality in the homes and on the labour market are perhaps harder to measure and evaluate. When asking fathers who have used the parental leave they claim to have become more oriented towards their children, and also that they take a fairer share of childcare related domestic tasks (Almqvist and Duvander 2014;Duvander et al. 2015;Försäkringskassan 2013b;SOU 2017: 101). Such studies, however, will have difficulties with adjusting for selection bias where perhaps the most gender equally oriented fathers are also the ones who decide to use the leave. ...
Chapter
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This book presents 23 in-depth case studies of successful public policies and programmes in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland. Each chapter tells the story of the policy’s origins, aims, design, decision-making and implementation processes, and assesses in which respects—programmatically, process-wise, politically and over time—and to what extent it can be considered a policy success. It also points towards the driving forces of success, and the challenges that have had to be overcome to achieve it. Combined, the chapters provide a resource for policy evaluation researchers, educators and students of public policy and public administration, both within and beyond the Nordic region.
... International research has mainly placed focus on how coupled parents use their quota rights and research that associates fathers' leave use with their increased involvement in care also mostly addresses coupled parents (see e.g. Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Duvander & Jans, 2009;Haas & Hwang, 2008). Very few studies have examined parental leave use and care participation of lone parents. ...
Article
Since 2000, Iceland has had an equal parental leave quota for both parents regardless of their marital status or a child’s legal residency. Lone mothers’ much-reported disadvantages and poverty risks have been found to be effectively alleviated by generous parental leave policies by promoting their employment. This study asks if the Icelandic parental leave policy works in favour of lone-parent families by increasing shared care among parents living apart and facilitating lone mothers’ financial resources. The study applies data from four cross-sectional population surveys measuring how parents of firstborn children in 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2014 organise parental leave, work and care, for three years after childbirth. The results show that equal care participation of parents living apart has gradually increased since the enactment of equal parental leave rights. Furthermore, analysis of data collected among parents of children born in 2009 and 2014 shows that when parents have an equal division of care, the mother is likelier to find it easier to make ends meet in the child’s fourth year. These findings emphasise the importance of policies that promote care participation of fathers living apart from the mother.
... A sizeable and growing body of literature demonstrates numerous benefits associated with parental leave. Most research within this realm has focused on the benefits of [paid] parental leave for families including better health outcomes for mothers and children (Aitken et al., 2015;Heymann et al., 2017;Staehelin et al., 2007), increased father involvement (Huerta et al., 2014;Petts & Knoester, 2018), stronger coparenting relationships (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Kotsadam & Finseraas, 2011), and increased relationship stability (Lappegård et al., 2020;Petts, Carlson, & Knoester, 2020). Benefits of paid parental leave also extend to companies, which have become increasingly supportive of paid parental leave policies (Goodman et al., 2020;Kaufman & Petts, 2020). ...
Article
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Objective This study examines whether parental leave‐taking affects perceptions of workers as good parents, and whether this relationship varies between mothers and fathers. Background Contemporary parenthood norms promote intensive parenting, but pressures to engage in intensive parenting are more pronounced for mothers than fathers. Paid parental leave policies have the potential to improve gender equality, but only if such policies help to change gendered parenting norms. We assess whether leave‐taking further entrenches gendered parenting norms within workplaces or promotes greater perceptions of good parenting among fathers. Method We use combined data on 3333 respondents from two survey experiments in which parental leave‐taking and parental gender were randomly assigned. This enables us to assess the causal effects of parental leave‐taking on perceptions of mothers and fathers as good parents. Results Mothers and fathers in married, different‐sex partnerships are more likely to be viewed as good parents when they take longer periods of leave. Also, the positive effects of leave‐taking on perceptions of workers as good parents are stronger for fathers than for mothers—but only for short amounts of leave taken. Conclusion Greater access to, and use of, paid parental leave may enable more parents to be perceived as fulfilling contemporary parenting norms, and may especially increase the likelihood that fathers are viewed as good parents. As such, these policies may help to change gendered perceptions of parenting and promote greater gender equality.
... The recently approved Directive of the European Union on balancing working and private life (EU 2019/1158) mandates a baseline of non-transferable paid leave for fathers for all member states by 2022, though the specifics of the policy design are allowed to vary above this baseline across member states. Leave policy is a fascinating area of social policy, as it has shown itself to be particularly effective in moving us towards gender equality in some contexts (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014;Andersen, 2018;Bünning, 2015). It is also an area that shows how important it is to pay attention to the details of policy design as sometimes well intentioned, but badly designed policy can have negative outcomes, in terms of gender equality as much as well designed policy can have positive outcomes (Brighouse & Wright, 2008;Duvander et al., 2019). ...
Article
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Objective: This review article provides an overview on the state of policy-related fatherhood research in high income countries. Background: The review article focuses on four main currents of multi-disciplinary policy-related fatherhood research. The first considers the research on national level parenting leaves. The second explores research on organisation and workplace policies. The third presents research on policies around male health and fatherhood practices. The fourth looks at the impact of COVID-19 related policies on fathers. Method: This is a review article and so presents a review of the literature. It is not a systematic literature review but rather aims to show the benefit of multi-disciplinary conversation within fatherhood research. Results: Commonalities are found across the four policy-related areas in terms of key questions, but also in terms of research gaps. Conclusion: There is consensus around what works for engaging fathers across policy contexts. There is perhaps a paradox in that 'de-gendered' policies are usually most effective, but that fathers need to recognise that these degendered policies are for them.
Article
Although Sweden is a top country for gender equality, there are disparities in domestic labor and parental leave use between men and women. The COVID-19 pandemic changed work-home life by increasing remote work. This study explored eight fathers’ work-family experiences in Sweden before, during and since the COVID-19 pandemic using interviews. Three group themes were developed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: “Fatherhood as protected and restrained before and during COVID-19”, “COVID-19 as an opportunity for introspection” and “COVID-19 as an opportunity for better balance”. Fathers made meaning of the pandemic in terms of new freedom and flexibility, whilst also expressing the importance of social connection at work. The study contributes insights on fathers’ needs and the debate on post-pandemic work organization.
Article
Drawing on data from the China Employer–Employee Survey, this study examines the effect of industrial robots on gender earnings disparities and delves into the underlying mechanisms. Our analysis reveals that male workers earn 16.3 % more per month than their female counterparts, with over 90 % of this gap originating within firms. Subsequently, we observe that firms adopting industrial robots tend to exhibit a narrower gender earnings gap within the firm. Additionally, we determine that the inverse relationship between industrial robots and the within-firm gender earnings gap is predominantly observed in the lowest-earning segment. These findings remain robust even when employing various robustness checks, including instrumental variable estimation. Further investigation uncovers that the reduction of the gender earnings gap within firms is achieved by firms disproportionally displacing female workers engaged in repetitive tasks; however, this may potentially exacerbate gender inequality across the entire labor market.
Article
We study how fathers' access to workplace flexibility affects maternal postpartum health. We use variation from a Swedish reform that granted new fathers more flexibility to take intermittent parental leave during the postpartum period and show that increasing the father's temporal flexibility—and thereby his ability to be present at home together with the mother—reduces the incidence of maternal postpartum health complications. Our results suggest that mothers bear part of the burden from a lack of workplace flexibility for men because a father's inability to respond to domestic shocks exacerbates the maternal health cost of childbearing. (JEL D13, I12, J13, J16, J22, J32, M54)
Article
We use Sen’s capability approach to identify factors able to increase the effective freedom of working parents when deciding the length of their parental leave. We conducted a factorial survey experiment (FSE) with a Spanish sample of employees aged between 25 and 45. Respondents were asked to imagine that they were first-time parents and several descriptions of hypothetical situations or vignettes (where aspects of the leave system, workplace and family environment were randomly varied) were presented to them. Our goal was to identify the causal effect of a number of dimensions on their hypothetical decisions about the total number of weeks they would be on parental leave. A longer statutory duration and a higher replacement rate (of the paid part of the leave), having job security, and a workplace with friendly practices and cultures, were found to have a significant positive impact on the duration of parental leave.
Article
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Starting in the middle of March 2020, various lockdown measures and degrees of confinement were put in place in most European countries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this situation meant that more people were likely to experience poorer mental health, largely due to the imposition of social distancing measures, many individuals incorporated music into their coping routines to help improve their psychological well-being. Using a gender perspective, this study analyzes how individuals used music during lockdown and explores the differences between men’s and women’s views on the impact that listening to and making music has on their perceived level of well-being. A questionnaire, MUSIVID19, was administered to a sample of 1868 participants from all the autonomous regions in Spain. The results reveal that in the uses and perceptions of music, the stereotypes underlying the patriarchal system were also reproduced during confinement.
Article
This paper examines the division of household work in several post-socialist countries during their democratic transition period and compares them to advanced economies between 1994 and 2012. While female time allocation became more similar to that in advanced economies over time, some differences persist. Conventional determinants of time allocation to unpaid work at home are relevant in post-socialist countries; however, female time availability matters significantly less than in advanced economies. The Kitagawa–Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition suggests that differences between the regimes exist largely due to unobservable factors rather than determinants controlled for in this study.
Article
While Susan Moller Okin found much to celebrate in Rawls's earlier articulation of his theory of justice, she worried that his later turn to political liberalism evacuated his theory of its feminist potential. Here, I argue that we need not be so pessimistic: some of the strongest arguments for pursuing certain feminist projects can and should be made from within a politically liberal framework. In advancing this claim, I develop Rawls's idea of primary goods—namely those goods that all citizens need qua citizens—as a key conceptual resource for arguing for the elimination of the gendered division of labor using public reason. Drawing on recent empirical literature, I point out that the gendered division of labor continues to distribute to women an unfair allocation of primary goods. I then advocate for a specific public policy, which I call Gender Egalitarian Daddy Quota—a parental leave policy that sets aside time specifically for fathers to encourage men and women to engage in childcare related leave-taking to similar extents—on the grounds that this policy would help secure a fairer distribution of primary goods, and thus is required as a matter of justice.
Article
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While there has been work on whether women are more tolerant of outgroups, the ethnic politics literature has generally overlooked the role of gender in explaining interethnic trust. Whatever attention exists often focuses on the gender of the subject—that is, who is doing the trusting—with mixed results. One reason is that the object being entrusted is either not specified or assumed genderless. In this paper, we call attention to the gender of an important entrusted object in interethnic relations: children. We argue people are less willing to have their daughters—compared to their sons—marry an ethnic outgroup. Additionally, this willingness declines as the cultural distance widens. We test this using a survey experiment in Romania where we leverage the diversity in ethnicity and a gendered language structure. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for gender-based differences in studying interethnic trust.
Article
A number of studies have documented a positive (causal) relationship between fathers’ uptake of parental leave and a more equitable division of unpaid labour in Western contexts, primarily where men contribute to a fair share of unpaid work and fathers’ uptake of leave is common. South Korea offers an apt and contrasting setting to explore this relationship, with its highly gendered division of unpaid labour and low use of fathers’ leave, despite recent increases. This study finds that fathers who have taken (long) leave contribute more to housework as well as both developmental and routine childcare than fathers with neither leave plan nor experience. For housework and developmental childcare, this difference is mostly explained by already involved fathers self-selecting into leave. For routine childcare, there is limited evidence to suggest that very long leave of one year or longer could potentially make fathers more involved. In short, the gender equalising impact of fathers’ uptake of parental leave in Korea appears to be restricted mainly to long leave and routine childcare, if there exists any significant effect at all. Overall, this paper suggests that the gender equalising effect of fathers’ leave may vary depending on the stage of the gender revolution.
Thesis
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Access to the Swedish welfare state’s last safety net, social assistance, is ultimately determined through discretionary decision-making by social workers. This dissertation examines intersectional patterns and discriminatory bias in social workers’ assessments about social assistance eligibility. Focusing on factors related to applicants’ gender, family and ethnicity, the project comprises four studies, all of which highlight patterns regarding which applicants assessed as being eligible for support. Altogether, the project contributes to an expanded understanding of discriminatory tendencies in how social assistance policies are given practical meaning by the professionals that bring them into force. The first study builds on data covering all social assistance eligibility decisions implemented in 25 municipalities during one calendar month in 2012 (n=472). The remaining three studies build on data from a vignette experiment conducted in 2018, in which just over 1,000 social workers from 19 municipalities, including Sweden’s three largest cities, participated. Results from both sources of data confirm the impression left by previous research that social assistance assessments are gendered. They show that the likelihood of granting assistance is determined through different standards for men and women. In the view of current knowledge gaps, an important contribution lies in bringing the issue of ethnicity bias to light. The results from the vignette experiment indicate that applicants with Arabic-sounding names are responded to with more conditionality than applicants with Swedish-sounding names, and that discriminatory biases related ethnicity are highly intertwined with gender biases. By raising much-needed questions about the assessment of couples, the project also draws attention to the dissonance between the Swedish welfare state’s gender equality regime and the conditions for accessing social assistance. The results indicate that moral judgments about applicants’ gendered family roles affect social workers’ propensity to grant support to couples, and that such judgments take form through ethnicity bias. In terms of theory, the dissertation draws upon feminist and postcolonial perspectives on social policy as well as a street-level bureaucracy perspective on frontline work. Social assistance is understood as part of the welfare state’s wider politics of redistribution, and the quantitative patterns formed by social workers’ individual acts are seen in the light of structural inequalities. The dissertation presents a conceptual model for thinking about social assistance eligibility, emphasising uncertainty as an inescapable dimension of means-testing. A central argument is that eligibility issues decided at the street level cannot be separated from ongoing discretionary processes of policy implementation. While the risk of discrimination in social assistance assessments is inevitable, it tends to be concealed by the administrative arrangements through which policy comes to matter.
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Importance: Female oncologists often spend their childbearing years in training and establishing careers, with many later experiencing fertility issues when starting a family. Physician fertility and family planning are rarely discussed during training. Attitudes among female oncologists regarding family planning are unknown. Objectives: To understand barriers to family planning as well as the association of fertility treatment with career decisions and to assess experiences of pregnancy-based discrimination among female oncologists. Design, setting, and participants: In this survey study, a novel 39-item questionnaire was distributed to US female oncologists from May 7 to June 30, 2020, via email and social media channels. Questions regarding factors associated with family planning, maternity leave, and discrimination were included. Main outcomes and measures: The distribution of survey responses was compared by oncology subspecialty. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine independent variables for discrimination experienced during maternity leave. Results: Responses were collected from 1004 female oncologists. Most respondents (847 [84.4%]) were married, and 713 (71.0%) were currently working full-time. A total of 351 oncologists (35.0%) worked in radiation oncology, 344 (34.3%) in medical oncology, 186 (18.4%) in surgical oncology, and 91 (9.1%) in pediatric oncology. A total of 768 respondents (76.5%) had children, and of these, 415 (41.3%) first gave birth during postgraduate training, and 275 (27.4%) gave birth in years 1 to 5 as an attending physician. Almost all respondents (951 [94.7%]) stated that their career plans were at least somewhat associated with the timing of when to start a family. Having a supportive partner was the most commonly cited positive association with family planning (802 [79.9%]), while long work hours and heavy workload (669 [66.6%]) were the most common negative factors. One-third (318 [31.7%]) had miscarried, and 315 (31.4%) reported difficulty with infertility that required fertility counseling and/or treatment; 660 (65.7%) thought fertility preservation should be discussed with women during medical school and/or residency. One-third (312 [31.1%]) reported experiencing discrimination during pregnancy, and 332 (33.1%) stated they experienced discrimination for taking maternity leave. On multivariable logistic regression, having more than 1 child was associated with increased likelihood of experiencing discrimination during maternity leave (2 children: odds ratio, 1.62 [95% CI, 1.10-2.39]; P = .02; ≥3 children: odds ratio, 1.84 [95% CI, 1.14-2.95; P = .01). Conclusions and relevance: In this survey study of female oncologists, 1 in 3 reported experiencing infertility and 1 in 3 stated they experienced discrimination during pregnancy and/or for taking maternity leave. Systemic changes are necessary to ensure women are supported and able to advance equitably in the field.
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Familiensoziologische Forschung vernachlässigt bislang die Bedeutung des Kindesalters als Erklärung dafür, wie sich Eltern die Erwerbsarbeit, die Hausarbeit und die Kinderbetreuung aufteilen. Dabei ist es offenkundig, dass sich mit einem jugendlichen Kind andere Ausgestaltungsspielräume für die Eltern ergeben als mit einem Säugling. Gleichzeitig werden durch die Arbeitsteilung unmittelbar nach der Geburt eines Kindes Weichen gestellt, die die Arbeitsteilung in den nachfolgenden Jahren prägen können. Im Fokus dieser Dissertation stehen daher Forschungsfragen, die sich darauf beziehen, welche Rolle das Kindesalter für die Arbeitsteilung der Eltern spielt. Des Weiteren interessiert die Frage danach, welche Rolle Einflussfaktoren wie z.B. relative Ressourcen oder Geschlechterrolleneinstellungen für die Arbeitsteilung spielen und ob sich deren Bedeutung in Abhängigkeit vom Alter des Kindes verändert. Einen Theoriestrang stellen dabei ökonomische Theorien wie die familienökonomische Theorie und die Verhandlungstheorie dar; einen weiteren Theoriestrang bilden die geschlechterrollen-, normen- und identitätsbasierten Ansätze. Bei beiden Theoriesträngen wird in dieser Dissertation herausgearbeitet, welche Bedeutung dem Alter des Kindes jeweils zugeschrieben werden kann. Doch zusätzlich spielen auch in Deutschland gegebene institutionelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen wie etwa familienpolitische Maßnahmen (wie z.B. Geldpolitiken, Zeitpolitiken und infrastrukturelle Regelungen) und Familienleitbilder eine wichtige Rolle. Daher werden Hypothesen abgeleitet, die Annahmen darüber machen, welche Rolle die Einflussfaktoren in verschiedenen Altersstufen des Kindes und unter den jeweiligen Rahmenbedingungen spielen. Es wird angenommen, dass die Einflussfaktoren bei unter 1- jährigen Kindern aufgrund von institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen noch keine Rolle spielen, aber dass die Bedeutung der Einflussfaktoren mit zunehmendem Alter des Kindes größer wird. Als Datengrundlage zur Beantwortung der Forschungsfragen dient der DJI-Survey „Aufwachsen in Deutschland: Alltagswelten“ (kurz: „AID:A“) von 2013/14. Anhand von diversen, multivariaten Analysen wird herausgearbeitet, welche Rolle das Alter des Kindes für die Arbeitsteilung der Eltern spielt und inwiefern sich die Bedeutung weiterer Einflussfaktoren in Abhängigkeit vom Alter des Kindes verändert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Kindesalter von zentraler Bedeutung für die Aufteilung der Erwerbsarbeit ist, während es für die Aufteilung der Hausarbeit und der Kinderbetreuung nur eine geringere Rolle spielt. Während die Aufteilung der Erwerbsarbeit mit zunehmendem Alter des Kindes deutlich egalitärer wird, sind die Aufteilung der Hausarbeit und der Kinderbetreuung über das Kindesalter hinweg relativ traditionell. Mütter können mit dem Älterwerden des Kindes somit größere Erwerbsoptionen realisieren, aber offenbar nicht, weil die Väter stärker in die Kinderbetreuung einsteigen, sondern eventuell, weil die Kinder weniger betreuungsintensiv sind oder die institutionellen und kulturellen Rahmenbedingungen dies besser ermöglichen. Aus den Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass niedrigere Ressourcen der Mütter (im Vergleich zu den Ressourcen der Väter) einen negativen Effekt auf den Erwerbsanteil der Mütter haben, aber höhere Ressourcen der Mütter zeigen dagegen keinen positiven Effekt auf den Erwerbsanteil der Mütter. Die relativen Ressourcen haben somit keinen symmetrischen, geschlechtsunabhängigen Effekt. Gleiches trifft auch für die Aufteilung der unbezahlten Arbeit zu: Hier zeigt sich, dass Mütter mehr Hausarbeit und mehr Kinderbetreuung übernehmen, wenn sie niedrigere Ressourcen haben; aber sie übernehmen umgekehrt nicht weniger Hausarbeit und nicht weniger Kinderbetreuung, wenn sie höhere Ressourcen als die Väter haben. Die altersspezifischen Hypothesen hierzu, d.h. dass die Bedeutung der relativen Ressourcen bei kleineren Kindern geringer ist als bei älteren Kindern, können in den meisten Fällen nicht bestätigt werden. Insgesamt kommt den relativen Ressourcen aber nur eine geringe Bedeutung zu. Bei den Geschlechterrolleneinstellungen zeigt sich, dass egalitäre Einstellungen mit einer egalitäreren Aufteilung der Erwerbsarbeit, der Hausarbeit und der Kinderbetreuung einhergehen. Die altersspezifischen Annahmen, dass die Geschlechterrolleneinstellungen bei kleineren Kindern einen geringeren Effekt und bei älteren Kindern einen stärkeren Effekt haben, können für alle drei Dimensionen der Arbeitsteilung dagegen größtenteils nicht bestätigt werden. In vertiefenden Analysen werden die Geschlechterrolleneinstellungen darüber hinaus anhand einer latenten Klassenanalyse multidimensional abgebildet: Hieraus gehen die drei latenten Klassen „intensive mothering/parenting“, „egalitärer Essentialismus“ und „egalitär“ hervor. Auch diese Klassen haben signifikante Effekte auf die Arbeitsteilung: In der Klasse des „intensive mothering/parenting“ sind Erwerbsarbeit, Hausarbeit und Kinderbetreuung am traditionellsten aufgeteilt, in der „egalitären“ Klasse am egalitärsten und die Klasse des „egalitären Essentialismus“ befindet sich zwischen diesen beiden Extremen. Allerdings gibt es auch hier in der Regel keine signifikante Veränderung in Abhängigkeit vom Alter des Kindes, d.h. die Einstellungen spielen für die Arbeitsteilung der Eltern in den meisten Altersstufen des Kindes eine gleich große Rolle. Zusammenfassend lassen sich die Ergebnisse wie folgt interpretieren: Dass die meisten Einflussfaktoren bei einem geringen Kindesalter noch keine große Rolle spielen, kann auf ungünstige institutionelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zurückgeführt werden. Die Tatsache, dass die Einflussfaktoren bei älteren Kindern jedoch entgegen den Erwartungen nicht bedeutend an Stärke gewinnen, kann möglicherweise darauf zurückgeführt werden, dass bereits im sehr jungen Kindesalter Weichen für die Arbeitsteilung gestellt wurden und so bisherige Arbeitsteilungsmuster (insbesondere bei der Aufteilung der Hausarbeit und der Kinderbetreuung) beibehalten werden. Die vorliegende Dissertation liefert hiermit neue und detaillierte Einblicke darüber, wie sich Eltern die Erwerbsarbeit und die Familienarbeit in Abhängigkeit vom Alter des Kindes aufteilen und bildet dabei alle Altersstufen des Kindes ab – angefangen vom Kleinkind- und Kindergartenalter bis hin zum Grundschul- und Jugendalter.
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One year after the pandemic started this chapter brought together pre-covid research with new evidence from Europe to reflect upon some key aspects of the changes this crisis has induced in households. Estimates from national real-time surveys, albeit not fully comparable, indicate that parents spent a minimum of 25%, but possibly even 100% more hours on childcare and home schooling during the lockdowns than before, while also faced with an increased amount of housework. As school closures were recurring and often long-lasting episodes during the first year of the pandemic, the possible consequences for parents cannot be underestimated. The heaviest burden was taken up by mothers, particularly those with young children. Not only were they more likely to adjust to the situation by massively increasing the time spent on unpaid duties, but their involvement was to a large extent independent of their working situation. However, at the same time, fathers also became more involved, many of them taking up several hours of duties at home – even if it only led (close) to an equal distribution of the workload in a small share of cases. While these are important changes in themselves, the most interesting questions relate to the possible longer-term consequences of the lockdown-induced disruptions. Will mothers’ labour market prospects be damaged as a result of their heavy covid-19 burden? Will a more equal division of household tasks prevail and reshape gender norms at least in some parts of society? So far only limited research has been done to answer these questions for Europe, although some data is already available to illustrate what is happening and to help better formulate our questions for future research.
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Drawing on a qualitative research study conducted in Britain in the early to mid-1990s with heterosexual-couple households with dependent children, the article explores domestic responsibility for children through a discussion of two distinct and related conceptions of domestic responsibility, emotional responsibility and interhousehold responsibility. Rooted in feminist research on domestic and community life, family sociology on gender divisions of domestic labor, and a symbolic interactionist approach to human relations, the article argues for a conceptualization of domestic responsibility that is constantly negotiated, relational and interactional, intrahousehold and interhousehold, and material and “moral.” The article also details an innovative methodological contribution for collecting data on the gender division of domestic labor: the Household Portrait technique. Theoretical and empirical implications include the need for greater emphasis on the interhousehold dimensions—both material and normative—of domestic labor and the need to focus on the links among masculinities, caring, and domestic responsibility.
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This article analyzes the debate among family experts about fathering in Finland from the 1980s to recent years. The controversy is whether shared parenting between women and men is good for children and for men themselves or whether a gendered division of parenting should be advocated instead. Both discourses perceive men as important as fathers but disagree on the care of babies and very young children. Irrespective of position, experts stress that the choices made by men regarding fatherhood are individual and have wide-ranging consequences in their lives and the lives of their children, especially of boys. Experts view motherhood as a societal duty, and fatherhood as personal and elective. If fathers’ choices are stressed as a moral issue, it is because fathers are seen as masculine actors, not as nurturers. The author argues that the radical societal ethos of shared parenting seems to have weakened, or even disappeared.
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In Sweden, government-mandated paid parental leave has been available to both mothers and fathers since 1974. By 2006, each parent had two non-transferable leave months and nine additional months to share. From the beginning, parental leave was presented as a policy designed to promote gender equality, with women and men having equal opportunities and responsibilities to contribute economically to the family and care for children. Sweden thus provides a unique setting to explore whether social policy can be an important instrument for changing the gender contract. Analysing survey data from 356 fathers working in large private companies, we found that the amount of parental leave days taken had positive effects on several aspects of fathers’ participation in childcare and on their satisfaction with contact with children, controlling for other factors contributing to fathers’ participation in childcare. Our findings suggest that the full potential of Sweden's parental leave policy for degendering the division of labour for childcare will not likely be met until fathers are strongly encouraged by social policy to take a more equal portion of parental leave.
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This article draws on empirical data from interviews with men and their partners in Sweden and England to explore how fatherhood formation takes place within intimate relationships and in the context of wider structural factors. The research illustrates the influence of the contemporary discourse of the “involved father” in both countries and shows that the ways in which this affects men’s practices is dependent on a wide range of factors including economic circumstances, social policies, political history, and the emotional relationship between partners. The influence of class is of particular significance in the English context, while it is less of a factor in Sweden. It is argued that, although the process is uneven, men’s practices as fathers are shifting toward more involvement in childcare and household labor and that this process can be assisted by structural changes and social policy initiative.
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This study explores fathers' experiences with work–family conflict and their perceptions of how supportive the organizational culture at work is regarding fathers' work–family needs, and whether a family-supportive organizational culture is associated with less work–family conflict. A total of 377 fathers working in private Swedish companies were surveyed. While a modest proportion of fathers experienced high levels of work-to-family conflict, less family-to-work conflict was reported. Further, fathers perceived little work–family support from top managers, supervisors, and co-workers. Our results indicate that the cultures in the examined companies have norms that separate work and family from each other. Fathers seem likely to experience work–family conflict as long as the family-supportive organizational culture, especially at the work group level, is not well-developed. When fathers experience their work organizations as family-supportive, they are likely to be better able to combine work and family and thus to help Swedes achieve a more gender-equal society.
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In this article, we describe the social and economic changes that have contributed to contemporary problems of work–family conflict, gender inequality, and risks to children's healthy development. We draw on feminist welfare state scholarship to out-line an institutional arrangement that would support an earner–carer society—a social arrangement in which women and men engage symmetrically in paid work and unpaid caregiving and where young children have ample time with their parents. We present a blueprint for work–family reconciliation policies in three areas—paid family-leave provisions, working-time regulations, and early childhood education and care—and we identify key policy design principles. We describe and assess these work–family reconciliation policies as they operate in six European countries widely considered to be policy exemplars: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and France. We close with an analysis of potential objections to these policies.
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More and more, fathers are deciding to stay at home and care for their children rather than work full-time outside of the home. More and more, Canadian families are lead by single fathers. Shining a spotlight on the lives of stay at home dads and single fathers, Do Men Mother? provides groundbreaking evidence of dramatic changes in mothering and fathering in Canada. Using evidence gathered in a four-year in-depth qualitative study, including interviews with over 100 fathers - from truck drivers to insurance salesmen, physicians to artists - Andrea Doucet illustrates how men are breaking the mold of traditional parenting models. Doucet’s research examines key questions such as: What leads fathers to trade earning for caring? How do fathers navigate through the ’maternal worlds’ of mothers and infants? Are men mothering or are they redefining fatherhood? Do Men Mother? illuminates fathers’ candid reflections on caring and the intricate social worlds that men and women inhabit as they ’love and let go’ of their children. In asking and unravelling the question ’do men mother,’ this study tells a compelling story about Canadian parents radically re-visioning child care and domestic responsibilities at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Article
Housework, a traditional topic in research on women and gender, has only recently begun to be studied from the standpoint of men. This article undertakes a comparison between France and the Netherlands, two countries that largely resemble each other from the standpoint of government intervention and the connections between work and family life, but differ in their stated political priorities regarding women and the structuring of women's employment. This comparison allows the author to reveal trends in the division of domestic labour between the sexes that hold across the board, regardless of particular cultural differences in representations of the roles of men and women in the family. Based on national survey data on "daily timetables", the analysis shows changes and continuity in men's involvement in housework, first as regards the male population as a whole, and then fathers in particular. The study brings out preferences for doing housework rather than parental work among fathers in France but not in the Netherlands. These preferences are linked to a change in social representations of domestic and parental tasks that have assigned new and different values to these tasks depending on whether or not they are performed by men. "New fatherhood" appears in any case to be an image with an ideological function more than a reality in practice, at least when the objective criterion used is the amount of time spent on the daily tasks of domestic life.
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'Tony Bryant and Kathy Charmaz are the perfect editors for this excellent and forward looking Handbook which is surely destined to be a classic' - David Silverman, Professor Emeritus, Goldsmiths College For anyone interested in grounded theory this is a must have book. No longer will students have to search the library or internet to find authoritative voices on a variety of topics. It's all right there at their fingertips - Juliet Corbin, San José State University Grounded Theory is by far the most widely used research method across a wide range of disciplines and subject areas, including social sciences, nursing and healthcare, medical sociology, information systems, psychology, and anthropology. This handbook gives a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice of Grounded Theory, taking into account the many attempts to revise and refine Glaser and Strauss' original formulation and the debates that have followed. Antony Bryant & Kathy Charmaz bring together leading researchers and practitioners of the method from the US, the UK, Australia and Europe to represent all the major standpoints within Grounded Theory, demonstrating the richness of the approach. The contributions cover a wide range of perspectives on the method, covering its features and ramifications, its intricacies in use, its demands on the skills and capabilities of the researcher and its position in the domain of research methods. The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory is an indispensable reference source for academics and researchers across many disciplines who want to develop their understanding of the Grounded Theory method.
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This paper reports the findings of a small scale, UK based, qualitative longitudinal study on men’s experiences of transition to first-time fatherhood. The study commenced in 2005, two years after paid paternity leave was introduced in the UK and explores how men’s intentions around fathering involvement are imagined and shaped in prenatal interviews. Subsequent interviews following the birth explore how prenatal intentions are actually practiced. The introduction of paternity leave in the UK heralds the possibility of father involvement in more than just instrumental ways and these are realised through caring involvement across the men’s accounts. But the statutory two weeks of paternity leave is soon over and a return to paid work signals a “domino-effect” of gendered practises to unfold as the uneasy relationship between paid work and family life is negotiated. The findings illuminate men’s capacities to care in circumstances that can mitigate against their longer term—and more equal—involvement.
Article
In Sweden the government has enacted specific policies, such as generous parental leave, to encourage couples to share in both economic and domestic labour. Using data from a national survey of Swedish women 1 year after childbirth, we assess whether the division of labour varies depending on women's parental leave status, education or number of children. We move beyond the most common measures of domestic labour (housework) and include several measures of daily child-care tasks. Our findings indicate that men share fairly equally only if their partner has returned to work full-time. This pattern remained regardless of women's level of education and number of children. We suggest that parental leave policies are necessary but not sufficient tools for encouraging gender equity at home.
Article
The study explores similarities and differences in motives, experiences and gender equality between parents regarding paid parental leave. Interviews were made with 16 heterosexual couples, drawn from 4 Swedish municipalities: 2 in each of the 2 counties with the widest difference in fathers’ paid parental leave usage. Extensive campaigns encouraging fathers to take paid parental in the northern county during the 1990s may have contributed to this difference. Data was drawn from interviews in 2008; the analysis was inspired by grounded theory. Fathers tend to have an increased child orientation, relating to change in hegemonic masculinity, and gender equality is more pronounced in child care than in household work. Lack of male networks and traditional division of household labor are more common in the low take-up municipalities.
Article
The purpose of this article is to advance a new understanding of gender as a routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction. To do so entails a critical assessment of existing perspectives on sex and gender and the introduction of important distinctions among sex, sex category, and gender. We argue that recognition of the analytical independence of these concepts is essential for understanding the interactional work involved in being a gendered person in society. The thrust of our remarks is toward theoretical reconceptualization, but we consider fruitful directions for empirical research that are indicated by our formulation.
Article
Men in the transition to parenthood have to integrate fatherhood into their self-concepts and identities. Contemporary societies, in particular, provide two contradictory discourses for fathers-to-be: (1) discourses which state that fathers are to take care of financial providing (as breadwinners), and (2) over the last decades. discourses that describe highly involved and caring fathers. Most men adopt the traditional position of a breadwinning identity and describe themselves as responsible for financial care. As a consequence they tend to show little attentiveness to their children's needs. Still, some men take up non-traditional practices and engage in child caring. We found two types of identities for such involved fathers: the feminized fatherhood identity and the distinctive fatherhood identity. Paternal identities were formed within the discourses provided by their social environment. The identity of feminized fatherhood is characterized by rejection of other concepts, but also by a devaluation of their own position as marginalized men. The distinctive fatherhood identity, in contrast, is defined by negation of hegemonic concepts and a positive valuation of difference.
Article
Since the introduction of parental leave in Sweden a more gender-equal division of such leave has been targeted. In 1995 one month was reserved for each parent, implying that the month was forfeited if not used by the same parent. A second month was reserved in 2002. In 2008, a gender equality bonus was introduced, meaning that tax credits were given to parents who shared the leave equally. This study investigates the effects of these reforms on parental leave use by means of a difference-in-difference approach with parents of children born just before and just after the introduction of each reform. We use register data from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which include all parents residing in Sweden. The results indicate a strong effect on parental leave use resulting from the introduction of the first reserved month, a more modest but clear effect resulting from the second reserved month and, so far, no effect resulting from the gender equality bonus. Possible interpretations of the results are that (1) reserved time may be more effective than an economic bonus, (2) change from low levels of use may be easier and (3) reforms may matter most when they are first introduced.
Article
By situating men within the country and time period in which they live, social scientists are better able to understand men's housework and child care behaviors. The author proposes that national context, conceptualized here as women's employment practices and policies, influences men's unpaid work behaviors by shaping the benefits of specialization, the terms of bargaining, and the ease of adhering to gender ideologies and norms. Using 44 time-use surveys from 20 countries (spanning 1965 to 2003) combined with original national-level data, the author utilizes multilevel models to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between national context and men's unpaid work behaviors. She finds that men's unpaid work time increases with national levels of women's employment. Furthermore, the effect of children on men's unpaid work time depends on women's national employment hours, the length of available parental leave, and men's eligibility to take parental leave, which indicates that particular public policies affect men in specific household situations. The analyses document the importance of national context for the unpaid work behaviors of all men, especially fathers, and shift the research focus from the attributes of individual men to the structures that hinder and facilitate men's unpaid work.
Article
I examine the interactive processes by which women and men negotiate family time schedules. Based on fifty interviews with seventeen dual-earner couples, I focus on the ways men and women define time in gendered ways, exert different controls over the way time is used, and align their time strategies in the course of managing everyday family life. The results indicate that there are both continuities and discontinuities with the past: women continue to exert more control over the organization of time in families, but time negotiation itself has become a more complex and demanding activity. The way that couples carry out these negotiations reflects a variety of adaptive strategies, with some couples being very reactive in contending with present demands and others being highly structured and seeking to anticipate and control the future. Although some couples worked to negotiate balance in their time responsibilities, it was wives who maintained control over time and, ultimately, the orchestration of family activity.
Article
This study examines how the workplace situation of both parents affects fathers’ parental leave use. We used parental leave-taking register data from Statistics Sweden for dual-earner couples who resided in Stockholm and had children in 1997 (n= 3,755). The results indicate that fathers shorten their parental leave if their workplaces are such that one can expect leave to be associated with high costs and that fathers appear to be influenced by the leave use of other fathers in the workplace. Mothers’ workplace situation appears to be less important for fathers’ leave use. The results point to the importance of actors other than parents (such as employers) for understanding the gender-based division of child care.
Article
This article explores how men’s identity, capacity and responsibility as parents were understood and communicated in Swedish, government initiated, paternity leave campaigns, 1976–2006. Images of the “new father” are analyzed in relation to Swedish equal status policy, emphasizing men’s and women’s mutual responsibility for child care as well as economic provision. The result indicates that paternity leave campaigns represented something progressive and historically unique. Frequent depictions of men performing and talking about care work challenged traditional notions of men and masculinity. However, the campaigns also reproduced notions of gender relations that undercut, rather than supported, a radical vision of gender equality. In the period 1976–2001, men were positioned as secondary rather than primary parents. The early 2000s, however, saw a shift in the way fatherhood was represented in the campaigns. In contrast to earlier campaigns, men and women were given the same responsibility for parental leave—“Half each!”
Article
Parenthood is often considered a major factor behind gender differences in time allocation, especially between paid work and housework. This article investigates the impact of parenthood on men’s and women’s daily time use in Sweden and how it changed over the 1990s. The analysis is made using time diary data from the Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS; N = 13,729) and multivariate Tobit regressions. The results indicate that while parenthood in 1990 – 1991 clearly strengthened the traditional gender division of labor in the household, this was much less the case in 2000 – 2001, when parenthood affected men and women in a more similar way.
Article
This article uses time-diary data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; N = 2,157 weekday diaries; N = 2,110 weekend diaries) to examine differences in infants' time with a resident father at age 4-19 months according to fathers' duration of leave around the birth. Results showed that those infants whose fathers took 4 weeks' leave or longer spent no more time with their father than did infants whose fathers took a shorter leave or no leave. We observed a positive association between any leave and sole father care on weekend days but not weekdays. The findings suggest that moderate increases in leave duration may not promote greater father involvement in Australia.
Article
Following the 2006 election, the Swedish earner-carer model of family policy seems to have come to an important crossroads, and questions have been raised about the future course of policies. Will the prototypical earner-carer model in Sweden persist? The separate reforms in cash transfers, services, and tax systems in several respects seem to point in contradictory directions, simultaneously introducing new principles of social care. In this article, past and present reforms and potential outcomes of policies are discussed from an institutional and comparative perspective. Reviewing research on outcomes of earner-carer policies for gendered patterns of productive and reproductive work, class-based stratification, child well-being, fertility, and work-family conflict, the article also contributes to the discussion about future challenges for family policy institutions in Sweden and other advanced welfare states.
Article
The gender division of childcare has received less research attention than the division of paid work and unpaid household work, possibly because time for childcare has been presumed to have the same determinants as time for household work and because of lack of appropriate data. Further, some of the previous studies of parents' time for childcare have been subject to limitations, such as small sample size, selective samples, and self&hyphen;reports on childcare time, and few had access to earnings data. This paper uses register data on days of parental&hyphen;leave used by mothers and fathers of Swedish children born in 1994, including information on the earnings of mothers and fathers, to analyse the determinants of fathers' participation in childcare. In 1994 parents were entitled to 15 months of parental leave of which 12 months were compensated at 90 per cent of prior earnings. Our major finding is that while both father's and mother's earnings had positive effects on father's leave use, this was smaller at higher levels of earnings, and father's earnings had a greater impact than mother's. At similar levels of earnings, the more educated fathers used more leave. Fathers also used more leave if the mother had more schooling and if they were established in the labour market, but used less leave if the mother was established in the labour market.
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Offi cial statistics for pre-schools, schools and adult education Stockholm, Sweden: Author. Swedish Social Insurance Agency Föräldrapenning. Båda föräldrarnas försäkring? [Parental leave benefi t. For both parents?] Socialförsäkringsrapport 2011:13 Social Insurance in Figures 2013
Children, pupils and staff. National level. Offi cial statistics for pre-schools, schools and adult education (Report 338). Stockholm, Sweden: Author. Swedish Social Insurance Agency. (2011). Föräldrapenning. Båda föräldrarnas försäkring? [Parental leave benefi t. For both parents?] Socialförsäkringsrapport 2011:13. Stockholm, Sweden: Author. Swedish Social Insurance Agency. (2013). Social Insurance in Figures 2013. Stockholm, Sweden: Author.
Regeringens skrivelse 2011/12:3. Retrieved from www.regeringen.se Swedish National Agency for Education
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Swedish Government. (2011). Jämställdhetspolitikens inriktning 2011-2014 [Gender equality policy, strategy 2011-2014]. Regeringens skrivelse 2011/12:3. Retrieved from www.regeringen.se Swedish National Agency for Education. (2013).
Who cares? Assessing generosity and gender equality in
  • R Ray
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  • J Schmitt
Ray, R., Gornick, J. C., & Schmitt, J. (2010). Who cares? Assessing generosity and gender equality in
Family policies and the best interest of children
  • E Brandth
  • I Gislason