Fathers’ Use of Leave in Australia

The effects of parental leave on child health and postnatal care: Evidence from Australia

“…However, fathers who took PPL appear to take less the other leave than those who did not take PPL as the total amount of leave during child birth for the two groups are 16 and 13 weeks, respectively (including 7 weeks of PPL for the former group). One possible reason for this is that PPL is the privilege reserved only for those work at large organisations, and labour market divisions and career pressure are barriers to fathers taking extended leave in connection with their child's birth (Whitehouse et al, 2007b). In addition, the total amount of leave that fathers took was not statistically signicantly dierent between families where mothers took PML and those who did not.…”

Parental Leave: An Important Employee Right, But an Organizational Challenge

“…Although parental leave is a public policy in Quebec, the use of this measure varies from one organization to the next and depends on the perceptions of the employees and the anticipated consequences on their career (Tremblay and Genin 2010;Whitehouse et al 2007). The employer's support therefore appears to be an essential ingredient in the success of parental leave policies.…”

“…It appears that in the absence of organizational support, taking up leave or using other family-friendly policies can not only be difficult, but can sometimes be perceived as having a negative impact on one's career (Fusulier et al 2008;Whitehouse et al 2007). The expected benefits of these policies are then significantly overvalued when organizational support is not provided; it is thus important to determine what elements of organizational support could be missing for a better implementation of parental leave.…”

“…The existence of family-friendly policies, such as parental leave, is supposed to reduce workfamily conflict; however, research has identified various factors that are likely to affect the relationship between family-friendly policies and work-life balance (Hammer et al 2009;Kossek and Ozeki 1998). The analysis by Whitehouse et al (2007) of the Australian parental leave program shows that its take-up is primarily influenced by fathers' employment characteristics: those working in small organizations or non-permanent positions are least likely to use parental or paternity leave. This analysis highlights barriers to usage associated with labour market divisions and career pressures that cannot be solved solely by the introduction of progressive leave policies.…”

Work-life balance and family friendly policies

“…Longer periods of maternity leave are generally associated with better health outcomes for mother and infant (for a review of this research see Productivity Commission 2009). Australian research has observed that fathers are unlikely to use unpaid parental leave (Whitehouse et al 2007), and international analyses report that fathers' uptake is most likely when framed as an individual right with universal eligibility; as a 'use it or lose it' policy; or with high wage compensation and allowances for flexible use (Smith and Williams 2007;Haas and Rostgaard 2011;Hegewisch and Gornick 2011).…”