Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental leave intentions in young adults (18-30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental leave policies and women’s political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.

Despite the growing importance of care economy careers (e.g., healthcare and education), men remain underrepresented in these fields. Past research suggests that, while economically developed nations tend to support equal rights for men and women, their labor markets tend to be highly gender-segregated (Charles 1992; 2003). By examining this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, we asked whether men’s lower interest in care economy careers is more pronounced in highly economically developed countries (vs. equally evident across countries), and if so, what psychological and cultural factors underlie these patterns? We examined these questions with actual labor data from 70 nations (Study 1) and a unique pre-registered study of career interest among 19,240 university students from 49 nations (Study 2). Although highly economically developed countries tend to promote some forms of gender equality (GGGI, 2017), the gender gap in care economy representation (Study 1) and interest (Study 2) is especially large in such countries. Results from Study 2 suggested that gender differences in values underlie this pattern. Specifically, men’s relatively lower communal values (e.g., valuing helping and caring for others) in highly economically developed countries predicted the larger gender differences in care economy interest in these countries. In addition, cross-national variation in gender differences in care economy interest was better explained by country-level variation in economic development and individualism than by self-expression values or general gender equality. Counter to prior findings, we did not observe parallel paradoxical patterns for STEM representation or interest.