Abstract
ABSTRACT Parental leave regulation is not gender-neutral. Policies that encourage fathers’ leave-taking relate to the enhancement of child well-being, caring fatherhood, and gender equality among the couple and in the workplace. There are various designs of parental leave policies, depending on a combination of factors, such as length, income replacement rate and the compulsory nature of leave. This article draws on data from the 16th International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research (2020) and analyses main features of parental leave policies in seven countries (Germany, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Israel, Japan and the United States), confronting it with recent research on the use of parental leave in those countries. Subsequently, the article provides evidence for the benefits of fathers’ uptake of paternity and parental leave and points out three features that leave policies must incorporate to promote gender equality and notes the importance of employers’ self-regulation.
Highlights
Gender equality is an ideal, a value, and a socio-political goal of democratic societies
Gender equality is nowadays enshrined in major human rights instruments3 and is a self-standing sustainable development goal
Parental leave constitutes a good example of how the state can hold back or promote gender equality, depending on how it regulates and legislates on the matter
Summary
Gender equality is an ideal, a value, and a socio-political goal of democratic societies. One of the gender equality sustainable development goal’s target is to ‘recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate’.5. Parental leave constitutes a good example of how the state can hold back or promote gender equality, depending on how it regulates and legislates on the matter. Since women often earn a salary inferior to those of men, they are the ones that take the leave If they are already mothers, the chances that the gender pay gap among the couple is even higher increases.. The information below regarding length, compensation, type of leave and flexibility, is based on the 16th International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research, released in 2020, and provided by the International Network on Leave Policies and Research
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