Norms about childcare, working hours, and fathers’ uptake of parental leave in South Korea

Lee, Youngcho

doi:10.1080/13668803.2022.2031889

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…States and private employers had increased access to paid parental leave between the 1990s and the 2010s (Donovan 2020; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2021), and fathers from more recent cohorts might be more likely to take leave because of compensation. Fathers might also be more likely to take leave because of changing cultural norms that increasingly encourage it, independent of actual access to paid leave, as research on East Asian contexts showed that generous paid paternity leave did not necessarily always mean higher uptake (Lee 2022;Mun and Brinton 2015). In addition, responding to calls of "being an involved father" (Fogarty and Evans 2009), men may be increasingly saying that the reason they took time off for a new birth is for "paternity leave," even though they may have done so through using vacation and personal days.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends in Men's Employment Hours around the Time of A Childbirth from 1989 to 2020

Li¹

2023

Preprint

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Parenthood often is a turning point that produces within-family inequalities between men and women. Women’s employment is usually disrupted by motherhood while men’s do not appear to change their labor market behaviors as they transition into fatherhood, leading many scholars to conclude that the gender revolution has stalled. Other scholars argued that “Part II” of the gender revolution is emerging, as marked by men’s increased participation in household labor. Using longitudinally linked monthly data from the Current Population Survey 1989-2020, I find evidence supporting the Part II of the gender revolution perspective. Fathers from more recent cohorts are working fewer hours around the time of a new childbirth compared with earlier cohorts. This cohort change is also larger among college educated men, men with a college educated partner, and men in dual-earner households. This work contributes to our understanding of the changing role of family and childcare in men’s formal employment.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends in Men's Employment Hours around the Time of A Childbirth from 1989 to 2020

Li¹

2023

Preprint

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, I refrain from directly quoting or referencing the posts when referring to blog posts written by my interviewees to protect their anonymity and privacy, in line with the terms of their informed consent. Further details of my approach for addressing the ethics of using online blog data for research as well as the full list of blogs and their links can be found in Lee (2022a). It is important to note that this study draws on a specific subset of caregiving fathersleave-taking fathers-whereas caregiving fathers is a broader umbrella term that includes fathers who are engaging in caregiving to different degrees while employed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Online media experiences of caregiving fathers: A study of leave‐taking fathers in South Korea

Lee

2023

Family Relations

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Objective: This work aims to document the different ways in which leave-taking fathers in South Korea engage with online media to address some of their challenges as male primary caregivers. Background: Although involved and caring fathers are becoming more common, childcare responsibilities still remain gendered. To equalize the gendered division of childcare, there is a need to gain a better understanding of the cultural barriers that fathers face in caring for their children and the ways that fathers could be supported, including through informal online communities. Methods: This article qualitatively analyzes semistructured interviews with fathers in Korea as well as posts from blogs by parents of young children about their experiences of taking parental leave and being a primary caregiver for their children. Results: Caregiving fathers experience similar exclusion and isolation in offline and online spheres from both communities dominated by mothers and those dominated by men who do not identify as caregivers. However, by engaging in online media communities for caregiving fathers, they learn to be better caregivers, connect with other fathers, and influence other parents through their online activities. Although such online activities allow fathers to address their various struggles as male caregivers, some fathers voiced reservations and critiques of online communities. Conclusion:In general, most fathers reported positive experiences from online activities that allowed them to address their experiences of exclusion as male caregivers, but there remains room for greater inclusion and accessibility for fathers.

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“…For example, in 2019, the rate hit a record high of 21% in South Korea (Kim & Kim, 2020). The patriarchal norms, long work hours, and male‐centered corporate culture have been identified to be reasons for the low take‐up rates in Asia (Y. Lee, 2022; Pinsker, 2020). We investigate how paternity leave‐taking is causally related to children's behavior and the extent to which family dynamics mediate this relationship in an Asian context—Singapore.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternity leave, family dynamics, and children's behavior in Singapore

Yeung

2022

J of Marriage and Family

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Objective Conduct the first empirical study to examine whether a father taking paternity leave is related to children's social–emotional development in Asia and the extent to which family dynamics mediate this relationship. Background The provision of paid paternity leave in Asia is relatively recent compared to many western societies. The impact of this policy on family dynamics and children's well‐being in Asia, where patriarchal ideology is more prevalent and women's labor force participation is high, is understudied. This study investigates this relationship in Singapore where government‐paid paternity leave was initiated in 2013. Method This study uses data from the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study which consists of 3895 children aged under 7. Multivariate regressions and propensity score matching analyses are conducted to assess the relationships between paternity leave‐taking, family dynamics, and children's behavioral outcomes. The KHB method is used to test the mediation effects of family dynamics. Results A 2‐week or longer paternity leave is significantly associated with lower family conflicts, mothers' parenting aggravation, higher marital satisfaction, fathers' involvement, and closer father–child relations. Paternity leave‐taking, mediated through positive family dynamics, is significantly associated with lower behavior problems in children. Conclusion Relatively short paternity leave (2 weeks) can benefit both family dynamics and children's social–emotional outcomes. These results have implications for policies that aim to enhance work‐family life balance and gender equality in society.

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Norms about childcare, working hours, and fathers’ uptake of parental leave in South Korea

Cited by 10 publications

References 58 publications

Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends in Men's Employment Hours around the Time of A Childbirth from 1989 to 2020

Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends in Men's Employment Hours around the Time of A Childbirth from 1989 to 2020

Online media experiences of caregiving fathers: A study of leave‐taking fathers in South Korea

Paternity leave, family dynamics, and children's behavior in Singapore

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