Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Creators: name: Olsson, Maria IT
name: van Grootel, Sanne
name: Block, Katharina
name: Schuster, Carolin
name: Meeussen, Loes
name: Van Laar, Colette
name: Schmader, Toni
name: Croft, Alyssa
name: Sun, Molly Shuyi
name: Ainsaar, Mare
name: Aarntzen, Lianne
name: Adamus, Magdalena
name: Anderson, Joel
name: Atkinson, Ciara
name: Avicenna, Mohamad
name: Babel, Przemyslaw
name: Barth, Markus
name: Benson-Greenwald, Tessa M
name: Maloku, Edona
name: Berent, Jacques
name: Bergsieker, Hilary B
name: Biernat, Monica
name: Birneanu, Andreea G
name: Bodinaku, Blerta
name: Bosak, Janine
name: Bosson, Jennifer
name: Brankovic, Marija
name: Burkauskas, Julius
name: Cavojova, Vladimira
name: Cheryan, Sapna
name: Choi, Eunsoo
name: Choi, Incheol
name: Contreras-Ibanez, Carlos C
name: Coogan, Andrew
name: Danyliuk, Ivan
name: Dar-Nimrod, Ilan
name: Dasgupta, Nilanjana
name: de Lemus, Soledad
name: Devos, Thierry
name: Diab, Marwan
name: Diekman, Amanda B
name: Efremova, Maria
name: Eisner, Leila
name: Eller, Anja
name: Erentaite, Rasa
name: Fedakova, Denisa
name: Franc, Renata
name: Gartzia, Leire
name: Gavreliuc, Alin
name: Gavreliuc, Dana
name: Gecaite-Stonciene, Julija
name: Germano, Adriana L
name: Giovannelli, Ilaria
name: Diaz, Renzo Gismondi
name: Gitikhmayeva, Lyudmila
name: Gizaw, Abiy Menkir
name: Gjoneska, Biljana
name: Gonzalez, Omar Martinez
name: Gonzalez, Roberto
name: Grijalva, Isaac David
name: Guengoer, Derya
name: Senden, Marie Gustafsson
name: Hall, William
name: Harb, Charles
name: Hassan, Bushra
name: Haessler, Tabea
name: Hawi, Diala R
name: Henningsen, Levke
name: Hoppe, Annedore
name: Ishii, Keiko
name: Jaksic, Ivana
name: Jasini, Alba
name: Jurkeviciene, Jurgita
name: Kelmendi, Kaltrina
name: Kirby, Teri A
name: Kitakaji, Yoko
name: Kosakowska-Berezecka, Natasza
name: Kozytska, Inna
name: Kulich, Clara
name: Kundtova-Klocova, Eva
name: Kunuroglu, Filiz
name: Aidy, Christina Lapytskaia
name: Lee, Albert
name: Lindqvist, Anna
name: Lopez-Lopez, Wilson
name: Luzvinda, Liany
name: Maricchiolo, Fridanna
name: Martinot, Delphine
name: McNamara, Rita Anne
name: Meister, Alyson
name: Melka, Tizita Lemma
name: Mickuviene, Narseta
name: Miranda-Orrego, Maria Isabel
name: Mkamwa, Thadeus
name: Morandini, James
name: Morton, Thomas
name: Mrisho, David
name: Nikitin, Jana
name: Otten, Sabine
name: Pacilli, Maria Giuseppina
name: Page-Gould, Elizabeth
name: Perandres, Ana
name: Pizarro, Jon
name: Pop-Jordanova, Nada
name: Pyrkosz-Pacyna, Joanna
name: Quta, Sameir
name: Ramis, TamilSelvan
name: Rani, Nitya
name: Redersdorff, Sandrine
name: Regner, Isabelle
name: Renstrom, Emma A
name: Rivera-Rodriguez, Adrian
name: Rocha, Sanchez Tania Esmeralda
name: Ryabichenko, Tatiana
name: Saab, Rim
name: Sakata, Kiriko
name: Samekin, Adil
name: Sanchez-Pachecho, Tracy
name: Scheifele, Carolin
name: Schulmeyer, Marion K
name: Sczesny, Sabine
name: Sirlopu, David
name: Smith-Castro, Vanessa
name: Soo, Kadri
name: Spaccatini, Federica
name: Steele, Jennifer R
name: Steffens, Melanie C
name: Sucic, Ines
name: Vandello, Joseph
name: Velasquez-Diaz, Laura Maria
name: Vink, Melissa
name: Vives, Eva
name: Warkineh, Turuwark Zalalam
name: Zezelj, Iris
name: Zhang, Xiaoxiao
name: Zhao, Xian
name: Martiny, Sarah E
Publisher: name: La Trobe
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 440705
subject: Gender, policy and administration
classificationCode: 4408
subject: Political science
subject: FOS: Political science
classificationCode: 5204
subject: Cognitive and computational psychology

description: Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental‐leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental‐leave policies and women's political representation partially explained cross‐national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender‐egalitarian parental‐leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross‐national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross‐national variations in women's (rather than men's) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender‐egalitarian policies (linked to men's higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men's leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.