Attitudes about paid parental leave: Cross-national comparisons and the significance of gendered expectations, family strains, and extant leave offerings

Abstract

Using data on paid parental leave preferences from 35,488 adults situated within 26 different OECD countries, and multilevel modeling, this study examines public opinions about the provision of paid parental leave, some government funding of leave offerings, and preferred lengths of leave offerings. We consider how attitudes may be similar or different across social contexts and then focus upon the extent to which gender, gendered parenting role attitudes, family strains, and country-level institutionalized leave offerings are associated with leave preferences. The findings indicate that the vast majority of respondents are in favor of rather widespread and generous paid parental leave offerings; indeed, there are generally high levels of support for paid leave availability, relatively long paid leave offerings, and government funding of leaves. Gendered expectations and family strains are consistently associated with individuals’ leave preferences—even after accounting for country-level social contexts. Country-level offerings are also associated with leave preferences—yet, we find that the overwhelming majority of respondents express a desire for paid parental leave length offerings that are substantially different than the extant leave offerings in their country. Overall, this research complements previous work by newly documenting widespread public support for the provision of paid leave and some government funding of it. Also, it establishes that gendered expectations, family strains, and country-level practices are consistently associated with paid parental leave preferences in wealthy countries. Yet, substantial dissatisfaction with extant paid leave policies within countries seems to be commonplace.

Families first: A comparative study of company responses to paid care leave programs in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Since all odds ratios are greater than one, the results suggest large companies with growing levels of concern over PCL laws are more likely to expand company-sponsored PFL while small companies are more likely to increase the number of independent contractors used. The large company result seems to confirm the positive attitudes worldwide towards PCL (Knoester et al, 2021), allude to how costly employee turnover can be (Boushey & Glynn, 2012), or perhaps reflects pressure to expand company benefits in time of emergency. Similarly, as part-time employees and independent contractors are typically not eligible for company benefits, the small company result indicates that firms with less than 500 employees may be avoiding mandated benefits regulations like FFCRA by using more independent contractors instead of hiring more employees.…”

Gender Egalitarianism and Attitudes Toward Parental Leave

“…Similarly, support for gender equality is positively associated with support for paid maternity leave (Staerklé, Roux, Delay, Gianettoni, and Perrin 2003) and paid paternity leave (Petts, Knoester, and Li 2020). In a study of 26 OECD countries, Chris Knoester and colleagues (2021) find that those who favor dual-earner couple arrangements are more likely to support parental leave while those who favor a more traditional separate spheres division of labor are less likely to support parental leave. Likewise, using the 2012 General Social Survey, Qi Li and colleagues (2022) find that respondents with egalitarian views are more likely to support parental leave while those with more traditional views favor shorter parental leaves.…”

CPG publishing: ‘Man’‐uscripts reign supreme

“…Meanwhile, women's career development in medicine and research can be hampered by lower salaries, 5 under‐representation in prominent authorships 6 and skewed citation practices 7 . Gender bias also negatively impacts men, who are confronted with gender stereotypes of which career choices in medicine are suitable, 8,9 expectations of how they should behave in a given specialty 8,10 and limited availability of paid paternity leave 11 . Unfortunately, the impact on men of gender inequality, and the initiatives devised to address this, are severely under‐studied 12 .…”