Reactions Toward Men Who Have Taken Parental Leave: Does the Length of Parental Leave Matter?

Abstract

There is some evidence from research in the US that the work-related characteristics of men who take parental leave may be evaluated negatively. In 2007, Germany introduced a new law that encourages men to take parental leave by granting 2 extra months for the second parent to stay home. Since the introduction of this law, the proportion of fathers taking parental leave has increased substantially, but the majority of men take only the minimum of 2 months. We investigated how taking a parental leave affected perceptions of men who applied for a job that required high qualifications and whether a long parental leave of 12 months would lead to backlash effects. In two experimental studies, 203 students in business-related subjects (105 women, 98 men) in SouthWestern Germany rated vignettes of male applicants on gender role attributes (agency, communion) and work-related characteristics. The applicant took either 0, 2, or 12 months of parental leave. A parental leave resulted in higher communion and likeability ratings but did not make a difference for ratings of agency, respect, competence, or hiring probability. Contrary to our hypothesis, a long parental leave (12 months) compared with a short parental leave (2 months) did not lead to backlash toward the men. The results indicate that in Germany, a country where parental leave for fathers is encouraged, gender role attitudes have changed, and men thereby have more gender role options.

Fathers’ Use of Parental Leave in a Canadian Law Enforcement Organization

“…Both managers and employees, but more managers, reported the inconvenience of leave use to the organization, the administrative struggle (e.g., replace and train a leave replacement, required paperwork), loss of productivity, and the increased workload that results when the organization chooses not to backfill a position while an employee is on leave. Fleischmann and Sieverding (2015) found that in Germany, longer leaves were not associated with increased peer backlash, but in this organization failure to backfill those on leave, especially when leaves are 35 weeks long, appears to increase frustration, as it has a direct and problematic increase on coworkers’ workload. This frustration is compounded when absences mean more shifts and exposure to physical threat.…”

Fathering and Flexible Working Arrangements: A Systematic Interdisciplinary Review

“…The existing body of literature and research on fathering and flexible work shares conceptual and theoretical insights, and methodological frames of reference, although there are notable points of difference that invariably result from the paradigmatic conventions of each discipline. For example, research from psychology has primarily focused on how gender norms (McLaughlin & Muldoon, 2014;Vandello et al, 2013), workplace culture, and organizational expectations have an impact on fathers' experiences of work-family conflict (Allard et al, 2011;Cooklin et al, 2015;Huffman, Olson, O'Gara, & King, 2014), and it has examined the dominant perceptions and attitudes surrounding fathers who use workplace flexibility (Coleman & Franiuk, 2011;Fleischmann & Sieverding, 2015;Rudman & Mescher, 2013). In this literature, there is often a singular focus on the individual, by which the individual's actions and perceptions are explored in the context of rules, expectations, norms, and identities.…”

Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths

“…In practice, the length of the financial support for parental leave can increase from 12 to 14 months provided that fathers use the parental benefit for at least 2 months. Recent research aiming at investigating whether German men who take parental leave are judged negatively in the workplace revealed that, in contrast with women who experience penalty for motherhood [ 40 ], fathers do not face backlash effect when they take a long parental leave [ 88 ]. The authors concluded that "gender role attitudes have changed".…”

“…Tempering this view, the present study indicates that even in countries promoting incentives for fathers to take parental leave, motherhood myths—and specifically the belief that mother's work threatens the family—are still a justification for gender discrimination in the workplace. With regard to practices, it should be noted that shared parental leave policies, whose purpose is to foster gender equality in the labor market, often fail to meet this objective, with the majority of fathers actually taking the minimum length of leave entitlement, or no parental leave at all, and the majority of mothers still facing the majority of childcare [ 88 ]. Once again, more research is needed to document the process of mutual influences between changing family policies and the maintenance of the gender status quo via justifying beliefs.…”