Abstract
The prevailing gender ideologies in the Nordic countries generally support the equal division of work and family life between men and women, including the equal sharing of parental leave. Regardless, as the exceptional case in the Nordic region, Denmark currently has no father’s quota, and this despite the strong impact such policy has effectively proven to have on gender equality in take-up of parental leave. While a quota intended for the father is instead implemented in Denmark via collective agreements, this is mainly available for fathers in more secure labour market positions. This situates Danish fathers, mothers and their children very unequally regarding parental leave entitlements, and the existing inequalities continue across gender, social class and labour market positions. This article explores to what extent institutional variables vis-à-vis cultural explanations such as gender attitudes provide an understanding of why Danish fathers take less parental leave than other Nordic fathers. We use data from the European Values Study (1990‒2017) as well as administrative data for fathers’ parental leave take-up in the same period, relative to the other Nordics and for specific education backgrounds. We conclude that Danish men and women are even more supportive of gender equality in terms of work‒family life sharing compared to other Nordic countries. This indicates that institutional conditions such as parental leave entitlement matter for leave take-up, but in the Danish case attitudes do less so. Not having a father’s quota seems to affect fathers disproportionally across the education divide, and the lower parental leave take-up among Danish men with little education is primarily ascribed to their labour market insecurity. The policy implication is clear: If we want mothers and fathers with different social backgrounds to share parental leave more equally, the policy must change—not attitudes.
Highlights
Gender equality in work and family life is one of the pillars of the Nordic welfare model
The central question for our analysis is whether the low parental leave take-up among Danish fathers reflects a lack of attitudinal support in Denmark for a more gender-equal division of childcare and paid work, generally as well as according to education divide as a proxy for social class
While Denmark has invested massively in childcare outside the home, genderequality in parental leave takeup is not part of the policy agenda to a degree that makes the current Social Democratic government consider a re-introduction of the father’s quota; rather, along with other parties across the political spectrum, it has been opposed to the EU directive for a 2-month parental leave quota
Summary
Gender equality in work and family life is one of the pillars of the Nordic welfare model. Acknowledging that there is no simple or one-way relationship between values, attitudes and behaviour (see Bergman, 1998), the article asks whether the low parental leave uptake among Danish fathers reflects a lack of attitudinal support for gender equality in childcare and paid work, both generally and according to social class. Genderequal attitudes may be constrained by opportunity structures for women and men that are typically not alike across different countries or education divides; opportunities depend on institutional factors, such as childcare availability and gender-equality-focused leave policies. This leaves the question of whether attitudes or institutional factors—in this case, parental leave entitlements—drive the variation in leave take-up across gender and social class
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