Fatherhood and Use of Parental Leave Policies in South Korea, Spain and the U.S.

• In Event: 2266 - Family Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 18. Parental Leave and Family-Friendly Policies: Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

This study aims to understand how men in South Korea, Spain, and the U.S. plan and use parental leave. These three countries have distinct labor-market structures, division of unpaid and paid labor based on gender, and parental leave policies. We leverage such different features to understand how macro context relates to individuals’ intentions and decisions of using leave policies. Using in-depth interviews of 80 men, half of them fathers and half of them planning to be fathers, we show how workplace culture and social policy shape men’s intentions to and behaviors of using leave. Findings show that whether the leave system is paid or unpaid critically shapes which men and how long men use and plan to use parental leave. This is especially true in Spain and the U.S. where a majority of men intended to use and used parental leave only when it was paid. In these two countries, a small group of fathers without paid leave engaged in active fatherhood by adjusting their working conditions when they had a child to have higher flexibility in terms of workhours and work schedules. In contrast, while Korea has generous paid parental leave, almost no Korean men intended to use and used parental leave. Korean men took for granted that fathers would not take leave but would work even harder. In the end, the macro context of gender norms, workplace culture, and paid versus unpaid leave system play key roles in explaining the differences in men’s reasoning across the three countries.

Authors

• Xiana Bueno, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics

• Eunsil Oh, Harvard University