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

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-indifferences 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.

Expecting better: Experimental investigations of the benefits of men's access to parental leave for anticipated well‐being

“…Put another way, while men and women anticipate traditional divisions of labor in the absence of paternity leave, paternity leave allows them to expect equality in the domain traditionally off‐limits to them. These results contrast those obtained in other countries, which revealed heightened egalitarian attitudes amongst both men and women across domains (i.e., both paid and unpaid labor) when policies incentivized men's use of paid paternity leave (Omidakhsh et al., 2020). However, the current results are broadly consistent with at least some other work revealing uneven and incomplete progress toward egalitarian gender ideologies (e.g., Dernberger & Pepin, 2020; Pepin & Cotter, 2017; Scarborough et al., 2019).…”

“…These are critical outcomes for American families. Indeed, building upon the existing correlational and quasi‐experimental data suggesting that paternity leave is associated with a host of positive outcomes worldwide (Almqvist & Duvander, 2014; Cools et al., 2015; Feldman et al., 2004; Fernandez‐Cornejo et al., 2016; Haas & Hwang, 2008; Nepomnyaschy & Waldfogel, 2007; Omidakhsh et al., 2020; Seward et al., 2007; Tanaka & Waldfogel, 2007), the current experimental results make a strong case for the causal importance of paid paternity leave.…”

“…Further, evidence suggests that in many homes, divisions of labor are still gendered along traditional lines, with men completing more paid work outside the home and women completing more unpaid labor inside the home (e.g., Baxter et al, 2015Baxter et al, , 2008Hochschild & Machung, 2012;Katz-Wise et al, 2010;Rehel, 2014;Yavorsky et al, 2015). However, recent evidence from outside the United States suggests that paid paternity leave may improve both men's and women's attitudes toward women's professional equality (Omidakhsh et al, 2020). We thus wondered whether access to paid paternity leave might lead to more egalitarian anticipated divisions of labor among a US sample.…”

Boosting the Sustainable Representation of Women in STEM With Evidence-Based Policy Initiatives

“…Furthermore, paid paternity leave increased women’s STEM engagement, belonging, and aspirations (O’Brien & Moss-Racusin, 2020). Paid parental leave improved attitudes toward women’s workplace equality in nine countries (Omidakhsh et al, 2020).…”

Utilizing a Comparative Policy Resource from the WORLD Policy Analysis Center Covering Constitutional Rights, Laws, and Policies across 193 Countries for Outcome Analysis, Monitoring, and Accountability

“…To answer these questions, a recent study using the comparative policy data examined the relationship of policy changes to attitudes towards women's work from 1995 to 2018. It compared changes in attitudes in countries that adopted a policy to incentivize or encourage fathers to take paid parental leave with countries that did not have a policy change, while controlling for confounding factors, finding that changes to parental leave policies that encourage fathers to take parental leave led to more egalitarian attitudes towards women working (Omidakhsh et al 2020). Another recent study found that paid parental leave policies improved gender equality in household decision-making, with positive effects on women's and their children's health outcomes (Heymann et al 2019).…”