An international team carried out research into the sources of differences in mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in childcare. For that purpose young adults’ plans related to parental leaves were analysed. The authors of the study include Prof. Przemysław Bąbel from the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University.
The team has gathered data from more than 14 thousand people (8880 women and 5062 men), aged 18-30 who were planning to have a child from more than 37 countries, different in terms of availability and length of parental leaves as well as prevailing views on gender equality. Why are men still less likely to engage in unpaid childcare? Some of the results turned out to be quite surprising.
Firstly, in all the studied countries women intended to take longer parental leave than men. This is unsurprising. But this also applies to couples who support egalitarian approach to gender equality. The differences between the duration of these leaves partially resulted from the differences between different countries’ policies in this regard – e.g. they were longer if the state regulations allowed for it. Secondly, the gender differences in parental leave plans paradoxically turned out to be greater in places where the parental leave policy is more equality-oriented – men less often decided to take longer parental leaves despite having the opportunity to do so. This applies to the countries where a longer parental leave is available to both mothers and fathers. One of the tentative explanations for this situation suggested by the authors of the research is related to the fact that when young women plan their maternal leaves, they plan their professional career accordingly (and not the other way round). Consequently, this leads to inequality on the job market – women who decide to become mothers often limit their career ambitions.
‘Parental leave policies that are financially generous and egalitarian in terms of gender were not linked to men’s intention to take such leaves’, the researchers claim. Their plans and decisions in this area were related to their individual approach to gender roles instead of possibilities offered by the state.
As the young people’s intentions related to parental leave seem to be related with their career decisions, more research is needed in this field, which would help to better comprehend the underlying motivations of the parents’ decisions.
