Fathers' Leave, Fathers' Involvement and Child Development

Abstract

Complete document available on OLIS in its original format This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.

Fathers on Leave Alone in Switzerland: Agents of Social Change?

“…Overall, these fi ndings support studies showing that leave duration matters for men's childcare involvement (e.g., Haas and Hwang 2008 ;Huerta et al 2013 ;Rehel 2014 ). It also speaks for Brandth and Kvande's ( 2013 ) critical assessment of leave entitlements taken in a part-time manner, as they argue it prevents men from spending "slow-time" with their child.…”

“…Scholars fi nd that fathers' leave uptake-from 2 weeks or more-has positive effects on their subsequent involvement in childcare (for Sweden, see Haas and Hwang 2008 ; for a comparison of four OECD countries, see Huerta et al 2013 ; for the US, see Nepomnyaschy and Waldfogel 2007 ;Pleck 1993 ; for the UK, see Tanaka and Waldfogel 2007 ). The existence and use of such leaves at the institutional level therefore decreases the gendered division of childcare work at the interactional level.…”

Gender Gap in Repartnering: The Role of Parental Status and Custodial Arrangements

“…The first argument affirms that financial commitments and time dedication to child care reduce a parent's opportunities for finding a new partner (Koo, Suchindran, & Griffith, 1984), especially if there is more than one dependent child and even more so if all or some of these are still very young (e.g., Huerta et al, 2013). This reasoning should apply to a lesser extent to nonresident parents, although their visitation schedule and paternal duties, if any, may dissuade them from planning a new union (Lampard & Peggs, 1999).…”

Does Parenthood Change Implicit Gender‐Role Stereotypes and Behaviors?

“…Studying gender-role stereotype changes associated with parenthood in the Netherlands is interesting because there is a discrepancy between gender-egalitarian ideals and actual gender-equal sharing of child-care responsibilities in the Netherlands. For example, the participation of Dutch mothers with 3to 5-year-old children in the labor market is relatively high compared to other countries at 80% (Huerta et al, 2013). However, the Netherlands has the highest percentage of part-time working mothers in the world (61% compared to 19% of fathers; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2016) even though partly subsidized high-quality child care is readily available.…”

“…This high level of part-time work creates a "mommy track" that may reduce mothers' career success (Mayrhofer et al, 2008) and power to bargain out of domestic labor (Bittman et al, 2003). Moreover, not many fathers make use of government-financed "daddy days" or partially paid paternity leave (allowing 26 weeks of leave before the child's eighth birthday; Huerta et al, 2013). Based on the possibilities to resolve work-family dilemmas that are available in the Netherlands, one could suggest that gender-role stereotypes might not necessarily change in Dutch parents.…”