Who cares? assessing generosity and gender equality in parental leave policy designs in 21 countries

Abstract

Parental leave laws can support new parents in two complementary ways: by offering jobprotected leave and by offering financial support during that leave. This study assesses the design of parental leave policies operating in 21 high-income countries. Specifically, the study analyzes how these countries vary with respect to the generosity of their parental leave policies; the extent to which their policy designs are gender egalitarian; and the ways in which these two crucial dimensions are inter-related. The study finds that public policies in all 21 study countries protect at least one parent's job for a period of weeks, months, or years following the birth or adoption of a child. The availability and generosity of wage replacement varies widely, as does the gendered nature of policy designs. Four countries stand out as having policies that are both generous and gender egalitarian: Finland, Norway, Sweden and -unexpectedly -Greece.

Towards an integrated approach for the analysis of gender equity in policies supporting paid work and care responsibilities

“…While differing with respect to the specific technical measurements used, O'Brien (2009) and Ray, Gornick, and Schmitt (2010) assess the degree of gender equity on the basis of the extent to which non-transferable leave rights and benefits are granted to men as well as to women, on the one hand; and of the nature and incentives for male uptake, on the other. From the point of view of this approach, gender neutrality and the lack of a specific allocation of leave time to either parent would count as less gender-equal than a 50-50 division of leave time between the two parents.…”

“…In some countries, periods of parental leave may be long, but with little or no payment; in others, payment is reduced after a given period, and so forth. To obviate this difficulty, the concept of "effective parental leave" has been developed, which weighs the duration of leave against the duration and level of compensation (Plantenga and Remery 2005;Ray, Gornick, and Schmitt 2010;Saraceno and Keck 2010;UNICEF 2008). 6 With regard to childcare, since we are interested in the degree to which childcare responsibilities are shared by the state, we consider only public (or publicly financed) childcare coverage rates ( Figure 1).…”

Stability and Change in Self-Control during the Transition to Parenthood

“…For work-family conflict, this gender difference might at least partly reflect Dutch family policies and gender roles. For example, during the time of data collection, Dutch fathers were entitled to 2 days of paid parental leave, as compared to 16 weeks of paid leave for mothers (Ray, Gornick, & Schmitt, 2010). Whereas fathers high in self-control might manage to find work-family balance, fathers with low self-control may feel more stressed and short of time to fulfill the demands of both the parent role and the work role just after childbirth.…”

Children and Dual Worklessness in Europe: A Comparison of Nine Countries

“…It is also not altogether clear how such situations should ideally be treated, in particular if one is ultimately interested in dual worklessness as a risk factor for deficits in well-being. Even in countries with long parental leaves, the period of generous replacement rates is generally rather short, after which benefit levels are lower (often lower than (earnings-related) unemployment benefits) or leave is unpaid (Ray, Gornick and Schmitt 2009;MISSOC, various years). Parental leaves with job return guarantees are mostly limited to workers eligible for them through accumulated prior employment, and even eligible workers are often not free to return to work at will (for example as a reaction to spousal unemployment) or do not use the leave they are entitled to (e.g., Bruning and Plantenga 1999).…”