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Dismantling Restrictive Gender Norms: Can Better Designed Paternal Leave Policies Help? 

Dismantling Restrictive Gender Norms: Can Better Designed Paternal Leave Policies Help?  Despite global commitments and efforts, women's equality, particularly at work, has still not been fully realized. Here, we examine whether improved parental leave policies, implemented at the national level, that encourage fathers to participate in caregiving can be effective at reducing unequal gender norms surrounding work. We use data from 1995–2018 that are nationally representative for nine countries, and employ a difference‐in‐differences approach to estimate the effect that changing parental leave policies has on attitudes towards women's work. Our results indicate that changes to parental leave policy that incentivize or encourage fathers to take time off are associated with improvements in attitudes towards women's equality in the workplace. Specifically, we find that incentives for paternal leave stimulates egalitarian changes in attitudes among both men and women. Our study is the first to longitudinally investigate whether parental leave policies can influence gender equitable norms and our findings support the notion that egalitarian changes in policy can improve gender norms. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy Wiley

Dismantling Restrictive Gender Norms: Can Better Designed Paternal Leave Policies Help? 

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References (32)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2020 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
ISSN
1529-7489
eISSN
1530-2415
DOI
10.1111/asap.12205
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Despite global commitments and efforts, women's equality, particularly at work, has still not been fully realized. Here, we examine whether improved parental leave policies, implemented at the national level, that encourage fathers to participate in caregiving can be effective at reducing unequal gender norms surrounding work. We use data from 1995–2018 that are nationally representative for nine countries, and employ a difference‐in‐differences approach to estimate the effect that changing parental leave policies has on attitudes towards women's work. Our results indicate that changes to parental leave policy that incentivize or encourage fathers to take time off are associated with improvements in attitudes towards women's equality in the workplace. Specifically, we find that incentives for paternal leave stimulates egalitarian changes in attitudes among both men and women. Our study is the first to longitudinally investigate whether parental leave policies can influence gender equitable norms and our findings support the notion that egalitarian changes in policy can improve gender norms.

Journal

Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2020

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