Fathers’ Use of Parental Leave and Union Dissolution

Trude Lappegård,Gerda Neyer,Synøve N Andersen,Ida Viklund,Ólöf Garðarsdóttir,Ann-Zofie Duvander

doi:10.1007/s10680-019-09518-z

Abstract

With increasing union dissolution and changing gender behaviour, questions have emerged about possible links between gender equality and union stability. The aim of this article is to examine whether and how early fathers' involvement in child-rearing is associated with union dissolution in three Nordic countries. All three countries have reserved part of their parental leave to be used by one parent in order to promote fathers' engagement in child-rearing. Our analysis uses fathers' parental leave as a proxy for his involvement, and we distinguish between fathers who take no leave ("non-conforming fathers"), fathers who take only the reserved part ("policy-conforming fathers") and fathers who take more than the reserved part ("gender-egalitarian-oriented fathers"). We find that couples in which the father uses parental leave have a lower risk of union dissolution than couples in which the father takes no leave. The pattern is consistent for all countries, for the whole study period 1993-2011, and for cohabiting and married couples. However, we do not find support for asserting that the couples with greatest gender equality, in which fathers take longer leave than the policy reserves, are the most stable unions, as the pattern is not uniform in the three countries. We attribute this to the fact that gender equality within the family in the Nordic countries is still an ongoing process, and the relationship between gender behaviour and union stability is still in flux.

Highlights

With increasing union dissolution and changing gender behaviour, questions have emerged about possible links between gender behaviour and union stability
By examining union dissolution among these groups, we provide new insights into how a policy with the explicit aim to change the division of care and unpaid responsibilities within the family is associated with union stability
The overall picture is similar in all countries: couples in which the father has taken any parental leave have a lower risk of union dissolution than couples in which the father has not taken leave

Summary

Introduction

With increasing union dissolution and changing gender behaviour, questions have emerged about possible links between gender behaviour and union stability. The gender revolution theory links union dissolution risks to the stalled progress in men’s behaviour regarding family obligations (Goldscheider et al 2015) It postulates that a more equal sharing of family responsibilities relieves women of the triple burden of employment, household work and care, leads to greater couple satisfaction and to closer ties between the children and their father. This in turn results in a higher threshold for couples to dissolve their relationship (Goldscheider et al 2015)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion