Research project Young parents, parental leave and gender equality
One aim of this project is to produce a Nordic overview of research and statistics on the socio-economic patterns and cultural aspects of parental leave take-up by young parents under 30 years of age. Another aim is to examine the consequences of these patterns for gender equality in the labour market and in family life.
Furthermore, the project will examine what support paid parental leave policies provide for young parents with emphasis on parents still in education or precarious labor market positions.
The following questions will be addressed based on existing quantitative and qualitative research:
- Do young couples under 30 years of age share parental leave more or less equally between mothers and fathers than older couples?
- What kind of socio-economic patterns (education, employment, income, precarious work) are related to young parents’ take-up of leave?
- Are there differences in the benefit levels (income-related, flat-rate, no benefit) received by young mothers and fathers compared to older parents?
- Are the leave rights and benefits available of young parents different for students compared to taking leave from working life?
- Does a long parental leave taken by a young parent increase their risk of marginalization from education and employment (NEET)? - what kinds of gender ideologies and cultural conceptions of motherhood and fatherhood do young people hold that are related to the division of labour in childcare and parental leave?
Project members
Project managers
Ann-Zofie Duvander
Professor of Demography
Johanna Lammi-Taskula
Research Manager
