Negotiating for entitlement: Accessing parental leave in Hungarian firms

Abstract

There is a great deal of literature on the patterns and consequences of parental leave policies and on how and why certain countries adopted specific family policy clusters. Much less is known about the employment context that shapes workers' use of these policies. The current study focuses on the negotiation process that workers must undergo with employers regarding the length of leave and workers' ability to return to their jobs following leave. Given workers' increasing vulnerability in a global neoliberal labour market and the lack of efficient state protection, companies are able to reinforce the ideal of the unencumbered worker norm and thus shape workplace gender inequality regimes. Drawing on qualitative data gained from 33 highly skilled professional women in Hungary, we find that parental leave provisions have become conditional on company needs, and as a result have become increasingly informal, individualized and subject to negotiation. Despite broad leave entitlements and job protections in Hungary, many of our respondents were required to scale back on their career aspirations, drop out or change jobs following leave. By exploring the ways in which highly skilled professional mothers negotiate their rights at work, this study identifies employers as critical gatekeepers who translate public entitlements into the lived experience of workplace gender inequality.

Informality, emotion and gendered career paths: The hidden toll of maternity leave on female academics and researchers

“…They found that institutions did not always fully implement legislation or provide replacements for staff on maternity leave and that the legal protection for maternity leave could become in effect ‘an empty shell’. This echoes the findings of Fodor and Glass () with reference to the private sector in Hungary where parental and maternity leave provisions have become increasingly informal, individualized and subject to negotiation. Similarly, Byrne and Keher Dillon () research in the Irish context also highlighted the problem of informality in the management of maternity leave and the general failure of academic institutions to adapt to women's dual careers.…”

Ideological Discourses of Fathers on Paternity Leave in Spain

“…It also justifies the critical position with the paternity leave system, both the current one and any extension proposal. The great similarities between these results and those provided by Fódor and Glass (2017) in the case of Hungarian mothers are noteworthy: their account also transforms the leave law into a "gift" dependent on the benevolence of employers. With the difference that because of their care-centered gender role, they are forced to accept it, in more or less negotiated terms, with the labor counterparts.…”

Workplace support and European fathers’ use of state policies promoting shared childcare

“…In addition, the workplace remains based on the norm of the 'ideal worker,' where workers are obligated to devote themselves to work without being free to consider caregiving desires and obligations (Burnett, Gattrell, Cooper, & Sparrow, 2013;Haas & Hwang, 2009;Hojgaard, 1997;Holter, 2007;Lewis & Stumbitz, 2017). The ideal worker norm can impact mothers' ability to take advantage of their statutory rights to parental leave (Fodor & Glass, 2017); Goldin (2014) also hypothesizes that the assumption that work hours cannot be flexible is responsible for the remaining gender gap in pay. In this special issue, we focus on how the ideal worker norm can also have a negative impact on men who want to be active fathers, since it discourages them from taking time off.…”