Understanding parental leave experiences: connecting the dots with a multiple-methods approach

Goodman, Julia M.; Richardson, Dawn M.; Steeves-Reece, Anna; Poma, Lisset Dumet; Plumb, Anna; Wray, Kristin; Hurtado, David

doi:10.1080/13668803.2019.1629874

Cited by 7 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The clear gap between policy and practice in workplaces is due mostly to work cultures that have established social norms relating fathers’ taking of paternity leave to unproductivity, lack of commitment, and reduced masculinity (Haas and Hwang, 2019). Empirical evidence shows that fathers taking leave is not the norm in organisations, even when policies allow for generous amounts of leave (Goodman et al, 2019).…”

Section: Applying Systems Social Marketing (Ssm) To Develop a Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Parental Leave Uptake: A Systems Social Marketing Approach

Duffy

Esch

Yousef

2020

Australasian Marketing Journal

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Ineffective paid paternity leave policies perpetuate gender inequality and have significant, long-lasting outcomes for families, organisations, and the economy. They maintain unequal divisions in child-rearing and household chores that restrict families’ decisions about workforce participation and caring responsibilities. Low levels of uptake of paternity leave are caused by workplace practices, social norms, and economic factors that influence the choices fathers make when their children are born, and which become entrenched over time. Fathers’ early involvement in children's lives is profoundly beneficial for families, therefore, we recommend to policy makers and organisations how they can change internal workplace cultures to allow for a more inclusive image of parenting and a more nuanced image of the ideal male worker. We outline a systems social marketing approach that addresses change at the macro, meso and micro levels through the three E's model (establish, explore, and enable), to help policy makers, organisations, and families consider the implications of meaningful parental leave and the importance of increasing fathers’ uptake. Future research questions for increasing parental leave uptake are presented.

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Section: Applying Systems Social Marketing (Ssm) To Develop a Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Parental Leave Uptake: A Systems Social Marketing Approach

Duffy

Esch

Yousef

2020

Australasian Marketing Journal

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“…Moreover, while employers may view time away from work as lost profits, paid leave can be strategically important. It has a high return on investment with positive effects towards worker productivity, morale, job satisfaction, and reduced job turnover ( Carmichael, 2018 ; Chen, 2016 ; Dobson, 2020 ; Goodman et al, 2019 ; SHRM, 2021b ). Here, we focus on vacation, sick leave, and family/personal leave, as they are the most common forms of employer-provided voluntary leave, but also because they are likely to be what employees need most to manage work-life balance issues (see Kossek & Lautsch, 2018 ).…”

Section: Why Employees Need Paid Leavementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This returned investment can be seen via morale, the speed at which individuals return to work, and retention ( Carmichael, 2018 ; Council of Economic Advisors, 2014 ). Moreover, good leave policies can also enhance the employer’s reputation, making it easier to attract workers and build trust with employees, providing a supportive workplace culture that, especially when reinforced by supervisors, helps with retention ( Goodman et al, 2019 ; Koslowski, 2018 ; Zaharee et al, 2018 ). Thus, even if employees do not currently need good leave policies to help with work-life balance, they may interpret the presence of such policies as a signal of employer support ( Casper & Buffardi, 2004 ).…”

Section: Why Employers Should Offer Paid Leavementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To address this issue, employers should focus greater attention on paid leave, in which an employer fully or partially funds employees’ time away from work (e.g., vacation time, sick leave, and family/personal leave), as a way to attract and retain employees. Concerns about benefits may be elevated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as employees have had to worry about themselves or their family members (e.g., children or elders) becoming ill, and then having to choose between taking time off or retaining one’s job ( Goodman et al, 2019 ; Sterling & Allan, 2021 ). Thus, as COVID-19 has directly affected large portions of the population, it has become clear that leave is needed—specifically, employees need sick leave for their own illnesses, family leave to care for their family members with illnesses, and vacation leave to reduce the effects of burnout.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Case for Offering Paid Leave: Benefits to the Employer, Employee, and Society

Davison

Blackburn

2022

Compensation & Benefits Review

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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted numerous problems in the labor market in the U.S., including high and low unemployment rates, burnout of employees in many industries, and inadequate time off for caregiving and medical issues. In this manuscript, we propose that employer-sponsored paid leave is increasingly important given that the U.S. lags behind most other nations in its leave policies, and many employees, particularly those in lower-wage, part-time, or front-line occupations do not have paid leave from their employers. We first discuss the common types of paid leave. Then, we make the case that paid leave is advantageous for both employees and employers, as well as society. We conclude with specific recommendations on how to implement paid leave in organizations.

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“…Patnaik (2019) argues that paternity leave offers a "winwin" by increasing investment in children and gender equality. While we focus on policy and not practice, recent evidence suggests that implementing more generous company leave policies can greatly increase the number of men who take parental leave and the amount of time they take (Goodman et al, 2019). And, evidence outside the US shows that the implementation of supportive paid parental leave policies can often contribute to greater gender equality (Collins, 2019;Kaufman, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered parental leave policies among Fortune 500 companies

Kaufman

Petts

2020

Community, Work & Family

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Due to the lack of a federal paid parental leave policy in the United States, access to leave for most US workers is dependent on whether their employer offers paid leave. Our research explores employer-based access to parental leave among Fortune 500 companies. We develop a classification of leave policies based on how policies differ for mothers and fathers: gender equal (equal periods of leave to mothers and fathers), gender modified (equal leave of 6 or more weeks with an additional 6-8 weeks for mothers), gender unequal (mothers offered 2 or more times longer leave than fathers), and gender-neutral gendering (policies that offer primary and secondary caregiver leave). We find that 72% of companies offer some paid parental leave, and the majority of Fortune 500 companies have paid parental leave policies that offer substantially more leave to mothers than to fathers. We also find that technology companies, larger companies, and companies headquartered in a state with paid family leave are more likely to offer paid parental leave. This research provides insight into the degree to which employer policies may contribute to gender inequality and has implications for employer-mediated inequalities in access to parental leave.

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Understanding parental leave experiences: connecting the dots with a multiple-methods approach

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

Increasing Parental Leave Uptake: A Systems Social Marketing Approach

Increasing Parental Leave Uptake: A Systems Social Marketing Approach

The Case for Offering Paid Leave: Benefits to the Employer, Employee, and Society

Gendered parental leave policies among Fortune 500 companies

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