This article is based on a survey that we conducted among 1,130 couples with children 3-8 years old, in Madrid and its metropolitan area. This allowed us, in the first place to obtain an estimation of the take-up rate and duration of the different kinds of childbirth leaves that Spanish workers use when they have or adopt a child. In the second place, the participation of the father has been analyzed in comparison to the mother’s in 18 specific childcare activities. A measure for father involvement in childcare (relative to the mother) that included 14 non-playful activities of childcare was built from there. Then, from a quantitative analysis with path analysis modelling with Amos program, we have obtained evidence that fathers who took more time off later tended to be more involved in the most routine childcare activities. Moreover, when considering other determinants of father’s involvement in childcare, we can highlight the importance of having egalitarian gender attitudes, working in a family-friendly company, the net earnings, and the mother’s working week. Most of these variables affect father’s involvement in childcare directly and indirectly, through their effects on the duration of childbirth leave (which serves as a mediating variable). Finally, a specific determinant of the duration of childcare leave was the introduction of a 13-day paternity leave in Spain, in March 2007.

The article analyzes how an egalitarian reform in the parental leave system may reduce the motherhood penalty. We used a sample of heterosexual dual-earner couples, with children between 3-8 years old, residing in Madrid and its metropolitan area. We show, first, that the introduction of a 13-day paternity leave increased significantly the average number of days that employed fathers were off work after the birth or adoption of a child. Second, we found some empirical evidence that fathers who took longer leaves tended to be subsequently more involved in the care of their children. And third, we obtained some evidence in favor of the hypotheses that when the father is actively involved in the care of his child the mother tends to experience less work penalty. We also considered the effect of other variables such as having egalitarian gender attitudes, working in a family-friendly company, earnings and the working week.

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Many working fathers would be potential users of the existing reconciliation measures but they do not request them. One barrier they encounter is the lack of sensitivity on the part of corporate culture to men who want to balance work and family life. We use a sample of Spanish wage-earner fathers and path analysis to analyzefollowing Sen's capability approach-how companies that support the use of reconciliation measures by fathers can reduce the gap between theoretical rights to and effective use of reconciliation measures, which leads to a decrease in levels of work-family conflict experienced by these working fathers.

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