Research project Encouraging Fathers’ Care

Why do some countries provide more generous parental leave benefits to fathers than others? What dimensions of parental leave are more effective at encouraging fathers to take time-off work to care for their children?

This project is divided in two parts. The first part examines relationships between different political actors and fathers’ parental leave provisions across 22 affluent democracies from 1965 to 2015. The research thus engages in a debate about the role of different political actors in recent shifts towards gender egalitarian family policy models.
The second part examines relationships between different types of paid parental leave provisions and (a) trends in fathers’ use of parental leave across 15 European countries, and (b) fathers’ share of parental leave in Germany, Sweden, and the UK.

Each part of this project requires measures of fathers’ leave provisions that are comparable across countries and over time. Thus, the project also contributes longitudinal, comparative indicators that will be made publicly available for the benefit of the broader research community.