Objective: This work aims to document the different ways in which leave-taking fathers in South Korea engage with online media to address some of their challenges as male primary caregivers. Background: Although involved and caring fathers are becoming more common, childcare responsibilities still remain gendered. To equalize the gendered division of childcare, there is a need to gain a better understanding of the cultural barriers that fathers face in caring for their children and the ways that fathers could be supported, including through informal online communities. Methods: This article qualitatively analyzes semistructured interviews with fathers in Korea as well as posts from blogs by parents of young children about their experiences of taking parental leave and being a primary caregiver for their children. Results: Caregiving fathers experience similar exclusion and isolation in offline and online spheres from both communities dominated by mothers and those dominated by men who do not identify as caregivers. However, by engaging in online media communities for caregiving fathers, they learn to be better caregivers, connect with other fathers, and influence other parents through their online activities. Although such online activities allow fathers to address their various struggles as male caregivers, some fathers voiced reservations and critiques of online communities.
Conclusion:In general, most fathers reported positive experiences from online activities that allowed them to address their experiences of exclusion as male caregivers, but there remains room for greater inclusion and accessibility for fathers.
While many countries with low birth rates have implemented policies incentivizing fathers to take parental leave with the anticipation that it will contribute to raising birth rates, there is scant research empirically testing whether fathers’ uptake of leave is pronatalist. Existing research is limited to a few European (mostly Nordic) countries, and it is unclear whether there exists a positive causal relationship. Using mixed methods, this paper seeks to explore the processes and mechanisms by which fathers’ uptake of parental leave impacts intentions for additional children in South Korea, a country characterized by lowest-low fertility and low but rapidly expanding uptake of leave by fathers. Results based on multinomial logistic regression models suggest that in comparison to fathers who expect to take their first leave shortly, fathers with leave experience are less likely to report couple-level intentions for another child, significantly so at parity two. Interviews of fathers with parental leave experience confirm that fathers attenuate their fertility intentions downwards in light of the difficulties of childcare during their leave. While these intentions may change further down the line and/or couples may decide to continue an unplanned pregnancy, results suggest that fathers’ parental leave has an anti- rather than pronatalist effect in South Korea. This study demonstrates that in countries with poor support for the reconciliation of employment and childcare, equalizing the gendered division of parental leave may not be sufficient to see a reversal in its fertility trends.
The COVID-19 epidemic has generated major social disruptions, including the implementation of border enforcement measures in many countries to contain international travel. As tourism has been the most frequent means for international couples to reunite, a minority of countries have implemented specific measures to allow foreign partners to cross the borders. The purpose of this article is to provide a global overview of the regulations of cross-border travel for couples respectively in formal and informal relationships. This research is based on data on travel guidelines from 175 countries and a typology that distinguishes countries that have not implemented travel restrictions (46%), countries that have enacted border enforcement regulations but with special measures to allow formal and informal couples (15%), countries with border enforcement and special measures for formal couples only (15%) and countries that have implemented a travel ban with no special measures (23%). Results show that the specific measures for formal and informal couples are implemented independently from the region but with much higher propensities in high-income countries. However, the administrative requirements, particularly for informal couples, vary greatly among the countries that allow couples to reunite. The article concludes that exemptions are key when analysing border closures and that specific measures could be applied more inclusively to allow informal couples to reunite.
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