How Different Parental Leave Schemes Create Different Take-Up Patterns: Denmark in Nordic Comparison

Abstract

The prevailing gender ideologies in the Nordic countries generally support the equal division of work and family life between men and women, including the equal sharing of parental leave. Regardless, as the exceptional case in the Nordic region, Denmark currently has no father’s quota, and this despite the strong impact such policy has effectively proven to have on gender equality in take-up of parental leave. While a quota intended for the father is instead implemented in Denmark via collective agreements, this is mainly available for fathers in more secure labour market positions. This situates Danish fathers, mothers and their children very unequally regarding parental leave entitlements, and the existing inequalities continue across gender, social class and labour market positions. This article explores to what extent institutional variables vis-à-vis cultural explanations such as gender attitudes provide an understanding of why Danish fathers take less parental leave than other Nordic fathers. We use data from the European Values Study (1990‒2017) as well as administrative data for fathers’ parental leave take-up in the same period, relative to the other Nordics and for specific education backgrounds. We conclude that Danish men and women are even more supportive of gender equality in terms of work‒family life sharing compared to other Nordic countries. This indicates that institutional conditions such as parental leave entitlement matter for leave take-up, but in the Danish case attitudes do less so. Not having a father’s quota seems to affect fathers disproportionally across the education divide, and the lower parental leave take-up among Danish men with little education is primarily ascribed to their labour market insecurity. The policy implication is clear: If we want mothers and fathers with different social backgrounds to share parental leave more equally, the policy must change—not attitudes.

Getting ahead in the social sciences: How parenthood and publishing contribute to gender gaps in academic career advancement

“…The Danish academic system is distinct from the Anglo-American tenure-track system, due to its competition for advancement at every career stage (Frølich et al, 2018). This implies that most academic Denmark, like other Scandinavian countries, is known for its supportive welfare policies for families, including generous, job-protected parental leave with financial support and accessible, low-cost public childcare (Rostgaard & Ejrnaes, 2021). Danish parents are offered 18 weeks of maternity leave and 32 weeks of shared parental leave per child that can be extended if taken part-time (Kleven, Landais and Søndergaard, 2019), and according to recent data, 57% of Danish children ages 0-2 and 89% of 3-year-olds are enrolled in public childcare (Rostgaard & Ejrnaes, 2021).…”

“…Despite these favorable state‐provided conditions, which have resulted in high female employment rates (Rostgaard & Ejrnæs, 2021), Denmark still exhibits persistent patterns of gender inequality in terms of vertical stratification (Klevens et al., 2019), which also extend to the country's academic system. According to recent data, women make up 27% of full professors and 41% of associate professors in the Danish social sciences (Supplementary Figure S1), which is below Denmark's Scandinavian neighbors (for a comparison with Norway and Sweden, see Supplementary Figure S2), and US and EU averages.…”

A munka és a magánélet közti egyensúly alakulása a kisgyermekkel otthon lévő apák családjában

“…A gyedet igénylő apák területi eloszlásából is azt látjuk, hogy elsősorban Magyarország északkeleti, szegényebb, elmaradottabb régióiban jellemzőbb ez a stratégia (NEAK 2021). Nemzetközi és hazai kutatásokból pedig az derül ki, hogy az alacsonyabb végzettségű férfiak kisebb arányban élnek a tényleges otthonmaradás lehetőségével (Szikra 2010, Rostgaard-Ejnaers 2021, valamint az új típusú, gondoskodó apaság és a kisgyermekkel való tényleges apai otthonlét inkább a diplomásokra és magasabb státuszúakra jellemző (Gregor 2016).…”

Constructions of Families in the Legal Regulation of Care

“…This is refl ected by the fact that most parental leave schemes are articulated in law and policy as employment policy related to the right to reimbursement of labour market earnings while they take on that care work; refl ecting the position that parental benefi ts should be attached to employment-rather than based on citizenship (Dobrotić and Blum 2020, 604). Another is the gendered nature of care work and the reinforcement of the role of women as caregivers, prevalent in many maternity leave policies (e.g., O'Brien, 2009;Ray, Gornick, & Schmitt, 2010;Rostgaard and Ejrnaes, 2021). One aspect that has received less attention in the literature, however, are categories and structures of caregiving as they relate to (hetero)sexual constructions of the family.…”