Fathers' Leave and Fathers' Involvement: Evidence from Four OECD Countries
| Author | Raehyuck Lee,Willem Adema,Jane Waldfogel,Wen-Jui Han,Maria C. Huerta,Mette Lausten,Jennifer Baxter |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271401600403 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
308 Intersentia
FATHERS’ LEAVE AND FATHERS’
INVOLVEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM
FOUR OECD COUNTRIES
M C. H, W A, J B, W-J
H, M L, R L and J W*
Abstract
In recent years, several OECD countries have taken steps to promote polic ies encouraging
fathers to spend more time caring for young children, the reby promoting a more
gender equal division of care work. Evidence, mainly for the United States and United
Kingdom, has shown fathers taking some time o work around childbirth are more
likely to be involved in childcare related activities than fathe rs who do not take time o .
is article reports on a rst cross-national analysis of th e association between fathers’
leave taking and fathers’ involvement when children are young. It uses birth cohort data
of children born around 2000 from four OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, the
United Kingdom and the United States. Results show that the majority of fathers take
time o around childbirth independ ent of the leave policies in place. In all countrie s,
* Maria C. Huer ta is a Policy Analys t and Willem Adema a Sen ior Economist in the Orga nisation for
Econ omic Co-o pera tion and D evelo pment (OECD); Jenn ifer Bax ter i s Sen ior Re sea rch Fe llow at the
Australian Institute of Family Studies. Mette Lausten is Senior Researcher in the unit on Children
and Family at SF I – the Danish National Centre for S ocial Research. Wen-Jui Han is Profe ssor at
e Sil ver S chool of So cial Work at New York Unive rsit y. Rae Hyuc k Lee is a Re sea rcher at Col umbi a
University School of Social Work. Jane Waldfogel is Professor of Social Work and Public A airs at
Columbia University Sc hool of Social Work and Visiting Profe ssor at London School of Economics .
Correspondin g author: Maria C. Huer ta. Address: OECD, 2 rue A ndré-Pascal, 75775, Pa ris CEDEX
16, France; e-mai l: maria.huer ta@oecd.org. e authors would like to t hank thre e anonymous
referees for comments on an ea rlier dra . e views expressed in th is paper are the respon sibility of
the authors: they c annot be attributed to t he OECD or its member governments.
is pa p er us es un i t r ec or d d at a f ro m G ro w in g U p i n A us t ra li a , t he Lo ng i tu di n al St ud y o f A us t ra l ia n
Children. e study i s conducted in partnersh ip between the Depar tment of Social Serv ices (DSS),
the Austral ian Institute of Fa mily Studies (AIFS) an d the Australia n Bureau of Statistic s (ABS). e
ndings and views re ported in this paper are t hose of the author sand should not be att ributed to
DSS, AIFS or th e ABS.
e Early C hildhood Long itudinal Study-Bir th Cohort (ECL S-B) is sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Educ ation, National Center for Education Stat istics (NCES), in collaboration w ith
several federa l education and health care a gencies. e ndings reported in this article are solely
the responsibil ity of the authors and do not nece ssary represent the o cia l views of NCES or other
agencies.
Fathers’ Leave and Fat hers’ Involvement
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 16 (2014), No. 4 309
except Denmark, important socio-e conomic di erences between fathers who take l eave
and those who do not are observed. In addition, fathe rs who take leave, especially those
taking two weeks or more, are more likely to carry out chil dcare related activities when
children are young. is study add s to the evidence that suggest s that parental leave for
fathers is positively associated w ith subsequent paternal involvement.
Keywords: Australia; birth cohort studies; childca re; child development; Denmark;
early years; paternal involvement; parental leave; the United Kingdom; the United
States
1. INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century fathers a re more involved in children’s lives than before (Gauthier
et al. 2004; Hook 2006; Maume 2011; O’Brien et al.20 07; United Nations 2011).
Although the ti ming and pace of change varies widely across countries, a cha nge in
the role of fathers can be obser ved worldwide (O’Brien et al.2007). Men are no longer
expected to be exclusive breadwinners but are frequently expected to share caring
responsibilities with t heir partners. However, despite important progress, women still
are the main careg ivers. i s is true even in the Scandi navian countries, which a re the
pioneers in supporting gender equality in the division of work inside and outside the
household (Miranda 2011; Rostgaard 2002).
Numerous factors have contributed to men’s increased participation in hous ework
and care activities, including: growi ng female employment; increased fami ly
diversity; changes in attitudes towards work and care; a nd the availability of family-
friendly policies. However, it is argued t hat the main determinant for men’s increased
involvement is women’s greater participation in paid work and their contribution to
household earnings (Maume 2011; O’Brien and Moss 2010). Today, in most OECD
countries, the majority of couple families are dual ea rners (OECD 2011). us,
both mothers and fathers have had to nd a new balance between work and family
responsibilit ies.
Family-friendly policies to help pa rents nd their preferred balance between
parenting and employment have been introduced in many OECD countries (OECD
2011). Furthermore, in recent years, there has been increasing interest in developing
policies to support fathers in contributing more to caring for young children. e
underlying objectives behind these policies may di er across countries, but, in
general, they aim to i ncrease gender equality at home and at the workplace as well as
to strengthen father-chi ld relationships and thus improve child well-being outcomes
(Rostgaard 2 002).
Available evidence shows fathers want to spend time caring for and being with
their children as i n many countries an overwhelming proport ion of fathers take time
o work around childbirt h (Moss 2011; O’Brien et al.2007). What is more, in cou ntries
Maria C. Huer ta, Willem Adema, Jen nifer Baxter, Wen-Jui Han,
Mette Lausten, R aehyuck Lee and Jane Wald fogel
310 Intersentia
without legal parental leave provisions, f athers use other types of leave to spend time
with their chi ldren during the rst months of life (La Valle et al.2008; Whitehouse et
al.2007). However, the amount of time fathers take o is greatly in uenced by their
leave entitlements.
Parental leave policies are relevant to in uencing parental behaviour as they
intervene at a critical point in the life-course; that is, around childbirth (Dex 2010;
Tanaka and Waldfogel 2007). At this critical point, parents, especially fat hers, may
be more open to changing their behav iour. For example, parental leave may facil itate
fathers sharing childcare-related tasks with t heir partners. Sharing these activities
during a child ’s rst year of life may promote less stereotyped gender roles; t hat is,
mother as exclusive caregiver and father as exclusive breadwinner. Moreover, taking
care of children from t he early days may facilitate father-child bonding (Tanaka a nd
Waldfogel 2007). Early paternal involvement may lead to continued engagement and
involvement in children’s lives and to a more equal divi sion of work between parents
(Baxter and Smart 2011; Brandth and Gislason 2012; Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel
2007; O’Brien and Moss 2010; Tanaka and Waldfogel 2007).
Po s i t i ve f a t h e r i n vo l v e me n t , i n t u r n , i s a s s o c i a t e d w it h n u m e r ou s b e n e ts, including
better outcomes for children (Bax ter and Smart 2011; Cabrera et al.2007; Lamb 2010;
OECD 2012a; Sa rkadi et al.2008; WHO 2007), for fathers themselves (Baxter and
Smart 2011; Eggebeen 2001; Smith 2011; WHO 2007), and for the family as a whole.
For instance, fathers who spend more ti me with their children have, on average, more
favourable labour market outcomes – earn ing more per hour and working fewer
hours per week – than their peers who spend less time with their children (Smith
2011); fathers who contribute more to housework and childcare experience a lower
risk of divorce than fathers w ho contribute less (Sigle-Rushton 2010); and, fathers who
are more engaged with their children are more satis ed with their lives than their
counterparts who engage less (Eg gebeen 2001).
e aim of this a rticle is to examine whether ta king leave around the time of birth
(paternity le ave, parental leave or a nnual leave) is ass ociated with f ather’s involvement in
child care-rela ted acti vities i n four OECD c ountries with di erent leave entitlements for
fathers. Fathers’ involvement in childca re has bene cial e e cts for children and parents,
and indicates that policy makers should invest in policies that encourage men to be
more involved in childreari ng tasks. Encouraging fat hers to make better use of parental
leave arrangements can contribute to changing attitudes and behaviours towards the
role of fathers and mothers in chi ldcare and in labour force par ticipation. Identifying
the proportion of fathers that take time o work to be with their new-borns, their
characteristic s and their level of involvement across di erent count ries would also help
to inform policyma kers on the e orts neede d to extend fathers’ use of parental leave.
is article follows previous work by Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel (2007) for the
United States. It presents, for the rst time, a comparat ive analysis of birth cohort d ata
of four OECD countries: Austral ia, Denmark, the United Ki ngdom and the United
States. One of the advantages of conducting a cross-national analysis is to identif y
To continue reading
Request your trial