Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women's political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women's (rather than men's) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men's higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men's leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Political Psychology |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1163-1192 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| ISSN | 0162-895X |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.12.2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
We want to thank Jeremy Biesanz for statistical advice. This research project was conceived following the award of a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to Toni Schmader (430-2018-00361). Additional funding included: a SSHRC Insight Grant awarded to J. R. Steele (435-2014-1247) and a SSHRC doctoral fellowship awarded to C. Lapytskaia Aidy; funding from the Basic Research Program at HSE University, RF, awarded to Tatiana Ryabichenko and Maria Efremova; a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council awarded to Teri A. Kirby (ES/S00274X/1); funding from State Research Agency awarded to Soledad de Lemus (PID2019-111549GB-I00/10.13039/501100011033); funding from Guangdong 13th-five Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (GD20CXL06) + National Natural Science Foundation of China awarded to XiaoXiao Zhang (31600912); funding from the research infrastructure HUME Lab Experimental Humanities Laboratory, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University awarded to Eva Kundtová-Klocová; two grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded to Tabea Hässler (P1ZHP1_184553) and Léïla Eisner (P500PS_206546); funding from the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (ANID/FONDAP #15130009) and the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (ANID/FONDAP #15110006) awarded to Roberto González; a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (756-2017-0249) awarded to William Hall; funding awarded to Denisa Fedakova from the Slovak Research and Development Agency project (APVV 20-0319); funding awarded to Léïla Eisner from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2LAP1_194987) and funding from Canada Research Chairs (CRC 152583), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant 140649), and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (Early Research Award 152655) awarded to Elizabeth Page-Gould. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maria I. T. Olsson, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. E-mail: maria.olsson@inn.no
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Political Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society of Political Psychology.
- childcare, cross-national, gender, inequality, parental leave
- Psychology