Fathers’ Parental Leave and Work-Family Division in Norwegian Elite Professions

2017 ◽  
pp. 61-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigtona Halrynjo ◽  
Selma Therese Lyng
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Family Division ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Elite Professions

Lowest-Low Fertility in South Korea: Policy and Domestic Labor Supports and the Transition to Second Birth

Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (2) ◽  
pp. 700-731
Author(s):  
Joeun Kim ◽  
Nancy Luke
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Domestic Labor ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Support Mechanisms ◽  
Work Family

Abstract Scholars and policymakers contend that severe work-family constraints for women are a key contributor to lowest-low fertility in industrialized countries. Two separate areas of research have examined supports that could alleviate these constraints and potentially increase fertility: institutional support in the form of public policies and domestic labor support from male partners. There are few studies considering the influence of both policy and domestic labor supports and no investigations of the interplay between these two support mechanisms. We develop and test a theoretical framework that considers how the combination of these supports could alleviate women’s work-family constraints and increase fertility. Using the case of South Korea, a country with one of the most sustained lowest-low fertility rates in history, we examined the relationship between women’s eligibility for parental leave and husbands’ share of domestic labor and the transition to a second birth. Our analyses revealed that both supports, independently, had positive effects on the likelihood of a second birth. More importantly, we found that husbands’ domestic labor had a positive influence on fertility only when women’s access to parental leave was limited, suggesting that policy and domestic labor supports are substitutes and alleviate the same underlying work-family constraint in the Korean context. Our study underscores the importance of understanding the nature of work-family conflict across countries and how various supports―alone or in combination―could relieve women’s constraints on childbearing and upturn lowest-low fertility.

scholarly journals The Role of Work-Family Balance Policy for Enhancing Social Sustainability: A Choice Experiment Analysis of Koreans in their Twenties and Thirties

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (14) ◽  
pp. 2553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inha Oh ◽  
Won-Sik Hwang ◽  
Hong Jun Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Childcare Centers ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Family Balance ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Work Family Balance ◽  
Work Family

Korea is facing problems, such as inequality within society and an aging population, that places a burden on public health expenditure. The active adoption of policies that promote work-family balance (WFB), such as parental leave and workplace childcare centers, is known to help solve these problems. However, there has, as yet, been little quantitative evidence accumulated to support this notion. This study used the choice experiment methodology on 373 Koreans in their twenties and thirties, to estimate the level of utility derived from work-family balance policies. The results show that willingness to pay for parental leave was found to be valued at 7.81 million Korean won, while it was 4.83 million won for workplace childcare centers. In particular, WFB policies were found to benefit workers of lower socioeconomic status or belonging to disadvantaged groups, such as women, those with low education levels, and those with low incomes. Furthermore, the utility derived from WFB policies was found to be greater among those who desire children compared to those who do not. The results suggest that the proactive introduction of WFB policies will help solve problems such as inequality within society and population aging.

scholarly journals Change in work-family reconciliation policy in France and the UK since 2008: the influence of economic crisis and austerity

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Jan Windebank
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Policy Area ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Face ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Work Family ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Economic Constraints

This article compares work-family reconciliation policy since 2008 in two contrasting case-study countries, namely France and the UK, and investigates how post-2008 economic circumstances and austerity measures have interacted with other policy drivers to influence the extent and shape of change in this policy area in these countries. The article demonstrates that work-family reconciliation policy in both countries has been resilient in the face of economic and budgetary problems and progress has been made albeit from different starting points and in path-dependent ways to “degender” parental leave and to improve the affordability of and access to childcare particularly for those on lower incomes. However, it also reveals that in both countries, despite partisan consensus on the need to further develop policy, a combination of economic constraints and the opposition to reform of key social and political actors has put a brake on change.

scholarly journals How can we become more equal? Public policies and parents’ work–family preferences in Germany

2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872110357
Author(s):  
Mareike Bünning ◽  
Lena Hipp
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Working Parents ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Time Position ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Employed Parents ◽  
The Right ◽  
Policy Setting

This study examines how public policies affect parents’ preferences for a more egalitarian division of paid and unpaid work. Based on the assumption that individuals develop their preferences within a specific policy context, we examine how changes in three policies affect mothers’ and fathers’ work–family preferences: the availability of high-quality, affordable childcare; the right to return to a full-time job after having reduced hours to part-time and an increase in the number of ‘partner months’ in parental leave schemes. Analysing a unique probability sample of parents with young children in Germany from 2015 ( N = 1756), we find that fathers would want to work slightly fewer hours if they had the right to return to a full-time position after working part-time, and mothers would want to work slightly more hours if childcare opportunities were improved. Full-time working parents, moreover, are found to prefer fewer hours independent of the policy setting, while non-employed parents would like to work at least some hours. Last but not least, our analyses show that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers’ preferences for longer and mothers’ preferences for shorter leave. Increasing the number of partner months in parental schemes hence has the greatest potential to increase gender equality.

Parental Leave During Surgical Training

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Patricia Maria Saez Carlin
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Training ◽  
Medical Training ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Training Period ◽  
Surgical Trainees ◽  
Date Analysis ◽  
Work Family

Work-family conciliation is currently in vogue. However, reality demonstrates that there is still a long way to go before being forced to make a choice between work, family, or personal life. Can a balance be achieved among the three? In relation to the medical profession, is there currently an adequate conciliation policy? Can these strategies be extrapolated to the training period? The proposal in this chapter consists in carrying out an up-to-date analysis on the parental leave situation during medical training as one of the main aspects of conciliation, by analysing parental leave policies and barriers faced by surgical trainees.

scholarly journals ‘Cold intimacies’ in parents’ negotiations of work–family practices and parental leave?

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1137-1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Twamley
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Heterosexual Relationships ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Feminist Ideology ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Work Family

This article aims to assess the contention that a ‘feminist’ ideology is associated with a ‘cooling’ of intimacy in heterosexual relationships, as argued by scholars such as Arlie Hochschild and Eva Illouz. According to this thesis, such an ideology, ‘abducted’ by a commercial spirit, encourages women to disengage from warm intimate bonds with others and to prioritize their own personal fulfilment and parity in care and housework. Drawing on two qualitative empirical studies exploring couples’ intimate lives and their feminist and egalitarian preferences and practices in leave, care and housework, this article examines in detail the basis of this thesis, and its effectiveness in explaining the lived experiences of parent couples’ negotiations of this terrain. The data were collected through focus group discussions with parents not sharing leave and a detailed ethnography with couples sharing leave. The comparison shows that, far from observing a clear dichotomy between ‘cold’ feminists and ‘warm’ traditional couples, both sets of parents present a more complex picture of ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ relations. The analysis enables a critical appreciation of sociological theorizing about gender equality and intimacy, contributing to sociological debates around individualism, feminism and family life.

Workplace Support of Fathers’ Parental Leave Use

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Berit Brandth ◽  
Elin Kvande
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Work Organizations ◽  
Family Research ◽  
Workplace Support ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Work Family

This article highlights the importance of social policy and working life contexts for employed fathers’ use of parental leave. It directs attention towards the Norwegian model, which is known for its gender equality aims and welfare-state support to families, but which is also active in the regulation of working life. Based on interviews with fathers who have used the father’s quota, findings run counter to work-family research where gendered assumptions in work organizations are found to prevent active fathering. The interviewed fathers report positive attitudes and supportive practices among employers. Fathers’ stories show that their use of the leave is subject to cooperation and compromising processes at the workplace level that research on fatherhood and organizations have hardly addressed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document