Reconciling Work and Family Life: The Effect of the French Paid Parental Leave

The introduction of the parental leave benefit scheme in 2007 is widely regarded as a landmark reform that has shifted the German welfare state towards a model that better supports work and family life compatibility. In this article, we investigate whether and how this reform has affected men’s use of parental leave based on data from the German microcensus of 1999–2012. We find that parental leave usage has increased across all educational levels, but the shift has been strongest for university-educated fathers. Public sector employment is beneficial for men’s uptake of leave, while self-employment and temporary work lowers fathers’ chances of taking leave. The parental leave reform has not affected these associations much.

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Women, Work and Industrial Relations in 2010

Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0022185611401817 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 337-352 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Marian Baird ◽

Sue Williamson

Keyword(s):

Policy Development ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Industrial Relations ◽

Work And Family ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Pay Equity ◽

Corporate Leadership ◽

Women And Work ◽

Workforce Policy ◽

Paid Parental Leave

Interest in women and work issues continued throughout 2010, with attention turning to the implementation of policies and utilization of the Fair Work Act to improve the position of Australian women in the workforce. Policy development continued for paid parental leave, with the new scheme launched in October 2010 and payments commencing from 1 January 2011. Together with the Fair Work Act, a new policy base around work and family has been established. The year 2010 was also marked by a focus on matters relating to pay equity, sexual harassment and the lack of women in corporate leadership roles.

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Work Life and Family Life Collide: Online Support for New Fathers

Workplace Health & Safety ◽

10.1177/2165079916666546 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 65 (6) ◽

pp. 248-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Martin Salzmann-Erikson

Keyword(s):

Family Life ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Work And Family ◽

Online Discussions ◽

Work Lives ◽

Worker Attitudes ◽

Work Related ◽

Private Lives ◽

Reasonable Accommodations ◽

Internet Forums

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze online discussions about parental leave in relation to the work lives and private lives of new fathers. A netnographic study of nearly 100 discussion threads from a freely accessible online forum for fathers was conducted. Data were coded, sorted, and categorized by qualitative similarities and differences. The results of the study indicate that new fathers seek Internet forums to discuss work-related topics. Parental leave can provoke worries and anxiety related to management and co-worker attitudes which can create concern that they should be back at work. The results are presented in two categories: (a) attitudes expressed by employers and colleagues and (b) leaving work but longing to be back. The phenomenon of parental leave for fathers is more complex than simply “for” or “against” attitudes. Fathers can use Internet forums to discuss their experiences, fears, and anxiety and provide reasonable accommodations for both work and family life.

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Women, Work and Industrial Relations in 2009

Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0022185610365644 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 52 (3) ◽

pp. 355-369 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Marian Baird ◽

Sue Williamson

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Gender Equality ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Industrial Relations ◽

Work And Family ◽

Senior Management ◽

Gender Justice ◽

Pay Equity ◽

Promote Gender Equality ◽

Paid Parental Leave

The interplay between women’s work and family lives and public and business policies attracted considerable attention during 2009. In this review we focus on Australia’s new paid parental leave scheme, pay equity, award modernization and the lack of women in senior management and on boards. We conclude that ‘economic efficiency’ arguments to promote gender equality in the workplace became stronger during the year, sometimes displacing gender justice arguments. We also suggest that 2009 was a year of policy wins and losses for women at work and that 2010 will see more attention to gender equitable policies as political parties seek to win the ‘women’s vote’.

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PATERNITY LEAVE (CUTI AYAH): Apa, Bagaimana dan untuk Apa?

YINYANG: Jurnal Studi Islam, Gender dan Anak ◽

10.24090/yinyang.v12i2.2017.pp351-366 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 351-366

Author(s):

Dewi Ariyani

Keyword(s):

Family Life ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Work And Family ◽

Labor Organization ◽

Paid Leave ◽

Paternity Leave ◽

The World ◽

Leave Policy ◽

Better Than

Abstract: Paternity leave is part of the parental leave program. Paternity leave is a leave policy given to male workers by many reason, when childbirth or adopting a child. Paternity leave is essential for reconciling work and family life for men. In fact, paternity leave is still a debate in various countries. According to data from the World Labor Organization (ILO), in 2013 there have been 79 countries that set policy on paternity leave officially. The policies of these countries vary in terms of length of paid leave and salary payments. The paternity leave range varies from one day up to 90 days. In general, developed countries have paternity leave provisions better than others. As for salary payments, most countries set full wage payments, but others without payments. During paternity leave, fathers can interact with their children directly and build bounding attachments. Bounding attachment involves the process of enhancing the affectionate and inner attachments between parents and infants. Some things that can build bounding attachment between father and child is through the giving of touch and play together.Keyword: paternity leave, bonding attachment Abstrak: Paternity leave merupakan salah satu bagian dari program parental leave. Paternity leave adalah kebijakan cuti yang diberikan kepada pekerja laki-laki dengan alasan istri melahirkan atau pun karena mangadopsi anak. Paternity leave sangat penting untuk merekonsiliasi kehidupan kerja dan keluarga bagi pekerja laki-laki. Dalam praktiknya, paternity leave masih menjadi perdebatan di berbagai negara. Menurut data organisasi buruh dunia (ILO), pada tahun 2013 sudah ada 79 negara yang menetapkan kebijakan mengenai paternity leave secara resmi. Kebijakan negara-negara tersebut bervariasi dalam hal lama cuti yang diberikan dan pembayaran gaji/upah. Rentang waktu paternity leave bervariasi dari mulai satu hari sampai 90 hari. Secara umum negara maju mempunyai ketentuan paternity leave lebih baik daripada yang lainnya. Adapun mengenai pembayaran gaji atau upah, sebagian besar negaranegara menetapkan pembayaran upah penuh, namun ada pula yang tanpa pembayaran. Selama masa paternity leave, ayah dapat berinteraksi lebih dini dengan anak-anak mereka secara langsung dan membangun bounding attachment. Bounding attachment meliputi proses peningkatan hubungan kasih sayang dan keterikatan batin antara orang tua dan bayi. Beberapa hal yang dapat membentuk bounding attachment antara ayah dan anak adalah melalui pemberian sentuhan dan bermain bersama.Kata kunci: paternity leave, bounding attachment

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The Overworked American Parent

The Free-Market Family ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190055479.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 43-68

Author(s):

Maxine Eichner

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Parental Leave ◽

The United States ◽

Work And Family ◽

Work Hours ◽

Significant Cost ◽

Economic Competition ◽

Paid Parental Leave ◽

The Government ◽

Do So

This chapter asks why Americans work such long hours and have so much difficulty balancing work and family lives. The answer, it asserts, lies in our lawmakers’ choice to favor markets over families. Families in the United States have to strike the balance between work and family on their own, with no help from the government. They must do so in an economy characterized by pervasive inequality and insecurity. Other countries help families strike this balance through a range of measures, including limits on mandatory work hours and paid parental leave. They have also intervened to reduce economic inequality and insecurity. In the United States, the result of half a century of failing to regulate markets to support families is that adults wind up working long hours in order to provide for their families. Even workers who succeed in the brutal economic competition that our economy incentivizes do so at significant cost to their family lives. When they get home, these same economic pressures cause parents to spend long hours intensively parenting their kids in efforts to ensure that they too can succeed in the economic competition once they become adults.

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How Different Parental Leave Schemes Create Different Take-Up Patterns: Denmark in Nordic Comparison

Social Inclusion ◽

10.17645/si.v9i2.3870 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 313-324 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tine Rostgaard ◽

Anders Ejrnæs

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Gender Equality ◽

Family Life ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Work And Family ◽

Exceptional Case ◽

Nordic Countries ◽

Strong Impact ◽

Men And Women ◽

European Values

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.

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Young women and men: Imagined futures of work and family formation in Australia

Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1177/1440783319877001 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 55 (4) ◽

pp. 778-798

Author(s):

Elizabeth Hill ◽

Marian Baird ◽

Ariadne Vromen ◽

Rae Cooper ◽

Zoe Meers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Women ◽

Family Formation ◽

Parental Leave ◽

Work And Family ◽

Workplace Flexibility ◽

Future Success ◽

Workplace Supports ◽

Domestic Labour ◽

Paid Parental Leave ◽

Future Work

In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men are approaching their future work and family lives. In this article we use data collected in the Australian Women’s Working Future (AWWF) Project 2017 to analyse what young workers imagine will be important to their future success in work and family. We find that formal workplace supports for care, such as paid parental leave and childcare, and workplace flexibility are identified as very important. Shared domestic labour is also desired. Parents have the strongest expectations for care policy supports. Young men without children are least likely to factor these into future work trajectories, while young women do. However, data on women’s plans for family formation, compared with men’s, suggests that difficulties accessing vital care supports pose a risk to young women’s ability to work, form families and care.

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