The Role of Partners and Workplaces in British and Swedish Men’s Parental Leave Decisions

Abstract

Sweden has been long known for its early introduction of parental leave in the 1970s and the introduction of the first nontransferable “daddy month” in 1995 while the United Kingdom (UK) lagged behind with policies that reflected a strong male breadwinner model until the recent introduction of Additional Paternity Leave, which extended paternity leave up to twenty-six weeks. Our study examines parental leave decisions following the changes in policy, paying particular attention to the role of partners and workplaces. We draw on data from thirty-two interviews with Swedish parents conducted in 2008 and twenty-two interviews with British parents conducted in 2012. We find that mothers in both countries have great influence over parental leave decisions. However, this often perpetuates a much greater gendered division of parental leave in the UK than in Sweden. Furthermore, the British workplace continues to hold very different expectations for male and female employees regarding parental leave, while Swedish employers are generally accepting of men’s use of long parental leave.

Keywords

fathers parental leave Sweden UK

Sweden has been long known for its early introduction of parental leave in the 1970s and their introduction of a nontransferable “daddy month” in 1995, which was extended to two months in 2002 and further to three months or ninety days in 2016. The United Kingdom (UK), on the other hand, lagged behind throughout the late twentieth century. By 2010, the UK policy continued to reflect a strong male breadwinner model with fifty-two weeks of maternity leave and only two weeks of paternity leave. In 2011, the UK introduced Additional Paternity Leave (APL), which extended leave for fathers up to twenty-six weeks. Our study examines the role of partners and workplaces in men’s parental leave decisions in these very different policy contexts.

Based on data from fifty-four interviews with British and Swedish parents, we focus on two questions. First, what is the role of partners in parental leave decisions? Second, what is the role of employers and workplaces in parental leave decisions? Both gender and policy context are of central importance to these questions. We therefore compare the perspectives of men and women within each context. We also consider different patterns for those living in Sweden, a country known for its gender equality and generous parental leave policies, versus those living in the UK, a country with a highly gendered policy and practice that has recently attempted to encourage fathers to take parental leave. Before turning to our methods and findings, we present the British and Swedish context as well as previous literature on the role of partners and workplaces in parental leave decision-making.

Swedish and British Context

The UK lagged behind the European Union in parental leave policies through the twentieth century. In a 1997 classification of father-friendly legislation in Western Europe, the UK was at the bottom (Smith and Williams 2007). This shifted once New Labour came into power, with the extension of paid maternity leave to eighteen weeks in 1999 and the introduction of paid paternity leave in 2001 (Daly 2010). However, over time, a wide gulf separated maternity and paternity leave until mothers were guaranteed fifty-two weeks of leave while fathers only received two weeks of leave. With maternity leave ahead and paternity leave behind other European countries, policies continued to support the male breadwinner model (Lewis et al. 2008) and were at best ambivalent toward fathers (Kilkey, Perrons, and Plomien 2013). Indeed, the UK was classified in the category of short/minimalist father-care leave with low/no income replacement (O’Brien 2009).

The UK’s skewed parental leave policies have supported the continuation of men as full-time breadwinners and women as part-time workers and part-time carers (Connolly and Gregory 2008). Chanfreau et al. (2011) find that one-third of British fathers take less than the two weeks of leave to which they are entitled, mainly because they cannot afford the low statutory pay of the second week. Indeed, statutory paternity pay in the UK is only equivalent to 31 percent of the national average salary. As such, British fathers tend to work relatively long hours while British mothers tend to work shorter hours, often part-time (Cousins and Tang 2004; Crompton 2006; O’Brien and Shemilt 2003). The result is often an unequal division of labor (Dermott 2008; Kilkey 2010) and relatively low work–life balance satisfaction (Abendroth and den Dulk 2011).

In 2011, the UK introduced APL. Under this policy, fathers could take between two and twenty-six weeks above their ordinary paternity leave. However, fathers could not start this leave until twenty weeks after the birth or adoption and only after the mother returned to work. Moss and Deven (2015, 139) suggest this policy was limited by “maternalistic assumptions that make access to leave by fathers dependent on mothers transferring their entitlement.” In addition, by the time fathers were eligible for this leave, it was either paid at a low statutory rate or unpaid. Previous attempts at paternity leave in the UK have not led to sizable increases in men’s take-up of parental leave (Hobson and Fahlén 2009). Early evidence indicates that APL had limited success (Trades Union Congress [TUC] 2013). In response, the UK altered the policy in 2015 to allow parents to share leave at any point after the first two weeks, though this policy also has its limitations in how many fathers may be covered (TUC 2015).

Sweden, on the other hand, has been at the forefront of parental leave policies, and its policies have emphasized the importance of including men from the beginning (Johansson and Klinth 2008). Further, there are opportunities to work part-time until the child is eight years old and extensive childcare possibilities. First and foremost, this parental leave system allows parents to combine childcare with paid work, concerning very young children up to the age of one year, when they have the right to start preschool. National as well as regional information campaigns during the 1990s and early 2000s promoted fathers’ parental leave use to encourage shared responsibility for the children (Johansson and Klinth 2008). While broader discussions surrounding feminism and gender equality existed as far back as the 1960s (Klinth and Johansson 2010; Rush 2015), parental leave campaigns provide a distinct emphasis on the promotion of women at work and men at home. Klinth (2008) suggests that earlier campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s often relied on more traditional notions of masculinity, promoting the idea of fathers’ possibility rather than responsibility to take leave. Further, campaigns advocated emotional benefits and professional gains for fathers. Feminist influence brought issues of power to the forefront. The beginning of 2000 saw a shift in understanding fatherhood, where similarity rather than difference in terms of men’s and women’s rights, capacities, and responsibilities was emphasized. By the mid-2000s, a framework of gender equality with fully shared responsibility was advocated.

Swedish parents are currently entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave, with 90 days reserved for the mother and 90 days reserved for the father. In 2014, Swedish fathers took one-quarter of all parental leave (Swedish Social Insurance Agency 2015). It may be used either part-time or full-time until the child is twelve years old. During the first two years of a child’s life, a majority of the parental leave days are used. Swedish paid parental leave became sharable between parents in 1974, making it the first country in the world to introduce shared leave. The earnings-related benefit was 90 percent of previous income, a level that decreased to the present level of 80 percent in the 1990s. In 1995 and 2002, the first and second so-called daddy months were introduced, and this time cannot be transferred to the mother. The uptake has not been as fast as hoped so in 2016 a third month was introduced, with the purpose of putting pressure on employers as well as parents.

Sweden has high levels of gender equality. According to Ray, Gornick, and Schmitt’s (2010) gender equality index, Sweden is ranked number one, with a total of fourteen of the fifteen points. Sweden scores high on generosity and gender equality within parental leave policies, which suggests their policies are consistent with the “earner-carer” model, acknowledging the fathers’ role as caregivers. Indeed, Swedish fathers are increasingly taking parental leave and sharing responsibility for caring for young children (Johansson 2011), and the introduction of the first daddy month had strong positive effects on Swedish fathers’ use of parental leave. However, the second reserved month has had a more moderate effect on fathers’ leave (Duvander and Johansson 2012).

Partners and Decisions about Parental Leave

Elliott (2016) conceptualizes caring masculinities as ones that reject domination and embrace relational and interdependent aspects of care and caring. In this way, men’s involvement in care work, including caring for newborn children, can encourage greater gender equality in their romantic relationships. Relatedly, Creighton et al. (2015) describe a fathering masculinity in which men embrace “gender-neutral” parenting and act as a team with their partners. While they find this pattern in Vancouver, they argue that this is becoming a more global standard of fathering. Ranson (2001) finds this pattern among Canadian fathers she termed “challengers,” and Kaufman (2013) finds this pattern among American fathers she termed “superdads.” In Sweden, a gender-equal father who stays at home and cares for children is now the “predominant figure of thought” (Johansson and Klinth 2008, 58).

Nevertheless, case studies of British fathers suggest that fathers still feel pressure to be economic providers for their children (Henwood, Shirani, and Coltart 2010). British fathers are constructed as secondary parents as opposed to mothers who are seen as the natural caregivers (Gregory and Milner 2011). McKay, Mathieu, and Doucet (2016) find different access to parental leave among Canadian mothers outside of Quebec based on socioeconomic class. This suggests the greater potential importance of finances in decisions concerning parental leave in contexts with weaker policies, such as the UK. Men tend to focus more on the economic impact of parental leave, even in Sweden (Duvander 2014) where economic pressures reduce the likelihood of sharing parental leave (Plantin 2007).

It is also important to note that female partners can act as gatekeepers by encouraging or discouraging father involvement (Allen and Hawkins 1999). Fathers are more likely to take parental leave when their partners have more negotiating power in the relationship. For example, Geisler and Kreyenfeld (2011) find that German fathers with partners who are more educated or older are more likely to take parental leave than those with less educated, younger partners. In Sweden, a discourse of shared parental leave is starting to replace the more traditional norm of women caring for young children (Almqvist, Sandberg, and Dahlgren 2011). Indeed, Swedish men who hold more egalitarian beliefs are more likely to take long leave than men with less egalitarian outlooks (Duvander 2014).

Workplace Culture and Decisions about Parental Leave

The effectiveness of parental leave policies is often mediated by the work organization (Gregory and Milner 2010), and this may have a particularly strong effect on men’s decisions regarding parental leave. For example, British men whose employers provide additional compensation, often for the second week of paternity leave, are more likely to take that extra time off (Hobson, Lewis, and Siim 2002). More stable employment increases men’s likelihood of taking parental leave (Geisler and Kreyenfeld 2011).

Evidence also suggests that men’s perceptions of the supportiveness (or lack thereof) of their workplace can have an impact on their decisions, with those who expect higher costs taking shorter parental leaves (Bygren and Duvander 2006; Haas, Allard, and Hwang 2002; McKay and Doucet 2010). In Spain, men who are more connected to their workplace and see the long hours culture as legitimate take very short leaves (Romero-Balsas, Muntanyola-Saura, and Rogero-Garcia 2013), while in the United States, men who request parental leave face stigma as less committed workers (Rudman and Mescher 2013). Fox, Pascall, and Warren (2009) find that British fathers are concerned about taking too much time away from work, fearing the negative impact of commitment to family on career prospects. While Swedish workplaces tend to be more supportive of fathers’ leave-taking, white-collar fathers tend to receive greater formal company support and informal support from managers and coworkers than their blue-collar counterparts (Haas and Hwang 2009).

Method

We draw on data from fifty-four interviews with British and Swedish parents. In the UK, twenty-two parents were interviewed in 2012. In Sweden, thirty-two parents were interviewed in 2008. British parents were recruited through e-mail announcements and fliers posted in universities, community centers, workplaces, and parent groups in a medium-sized city in the East Midlands. The first author conducted interviews in the researcher’s office or the participant’s workplace, and interviews lasted between forty-five and ninety-five minutes. Before the start of the interview, participants filled out a questionnaire with basic demographic information. At the conclusion of the interview, participants received a £20 gift card.

In Sweden, two counties were selected, one in northern part of Sweden, representing the county with the highest number (24.3 percent in 2007) of parental leave days used by fathers, and one in the southern part with the lowest number (18.7 percent in 2007; Swedish Social Insurance Agency 2010). Parents with a similar intracouple income were chosen, to look for other motives than the household economy. First-time fathers were included, since they would have made their leave decisions without previous experience. The interviews were semistructured and lasted about an hour. Parents were recruited through ordinary mail. The couples were interviewed separately, usually in their homes, by the second author. Before the start of the interview, Swedish participants also filled out a questionnaire with basic demographic information.

Among the British participants, there were thirteen mothers and nine fathers, and the average age was thirty-four years. There were sixteen White British, four Asian, and two White European parents. Fourteen were first-time parents, four had two children, and four had three children. All were partnered, with eighteen married and four cohabiting. All had university education. The distribution of income was three at less than £15,000, five at £15,000–£24,999, five at £25,000–£34,999, seven at £35,000–£44,999, and two at £45,000 or more.

Among the Swedish participants, the mothers varied from twenty-five to forty years of age and the fathers from twenty-five to thirty-eight years of age. Fifteen of the thirty-two respondents had three or more years of postsecondary education. All fathers and mothers were first-time parents, except one mother. The parents were working in different professions, such as preschool teachers, carpenters, sales women, and nurses. Concerning employment status, twenty-four were employees, four were manual workers, and four were self-employed. Women dominated among employees and men among manual workers and self-employed. Men’s high take-up of parental leave varied from 103 to 242 days and men’s low take-up varied from 10 to 35 days. The lower income level varied from around $24,000 to $30,000 and the higher income level was from $31,000 to $42,000.

The British and Swedish interviews focused on parental leave decisions, among other issues surrounding work and family. Participants were asked to discuss parental leave decisions and experiences for each child and in relation to themselves and their partners. Interviewees were asked how much leave time they and their partner took, how it was paid, whether it was considered maternity/paternity/parental leave or holiday/annual leave, how they talked about these leave decisions with their partners, and how they talked about parental leave with their employers and coworkers. They were also asked about postleave adjustments and how they experienced their return to work following leave. In both the UK and Sweden, transcriptions were made verbatim afterward. The authors engaged in both open coding initially and then focused coding related to discussions about parental leave involving partners and coworkers or employers. All names are pseudonyms.

Results

Below, we present the descriptions of partner’s role and workplace’s role in parental leave decisions. First, British partners seem to place emphasis on the prospective mother’s desire to take leave. Second, Swedish mothers also take a primary role in parental leave decision-making, but this may also encourage fathers to share more leave. Third, British employers seem to treat male and female employees differently, assuming women will take longer leaves with more flexibility in return while men’s leave is not expected to disrupt work as much. Fourth, Swedish employers tend to follow state policies, but there is more encouragement of men’s leave among larger companies.

British Partner’s Role in Parental Leave

As noted above, both British fathers and mothers place greater weight on women’s needs and wishes regarding parental leave, suggesting that mothers remain the primary caregivers and fathers the secondary caregivers (Gregory and Milner 2011). Mothers generally indicated that the decision was up to them and that their partners supported their decisions. For example, Amy, a forty-two-year-old development manager who took the full twelve months, said, “He didn’t care to be honest. He said as long as we can afford it do whatever you want.” Likewise, Emma, a thirty-year-old course administrator, said she and her husband did not talk much about how much maternity leave she would take:

Well, I don’t know if we particularly discussed it as a couple. I think he’s pretty much happy for me to do whatever I want, feel happy doing, and so you just kind of got on with it. I didn’t want to take. I wanted to take as much as I could but after nine months it goes to no pay so we didn’t want to live on no, just one wage so I stopped it after the nine months. But we didn’t really have much, a great deal of discussion about it.

While there was some consideration of finances, Emma took nine months of maternity leave, which meant that several months were at a low pay rate. British mothers do not face the same pressures to be financial providers as British fathers do (Henwood, Shirani, and Coltart 2010). Paige, a thirty-two-year-old researcher, seemed to have a bit more discussion with her husband but still directed the conversation:

He was very sort of amenable. We just sort of sat down, talked about it and just, because I suppose if I didn’t feel ready then it was probably going to cause more arguments in the long run anyway so yeah, he didn’t have any issues with it. He agreed sort of on the timing of it. And I think financially it was okay as well.

Paige took seven months of maternity leave in order to balance time with her newborn and still be able to return to work in order to carry on with her research agenda. Many of the fathers agreed that the decision was largely, or ultimately, left up to their partners, confirming the maternalistic orientation of the policy (Moss and Deven 2015). When asked how he and his partner decided how much leave she would take, Ishan, a thirty-four-year-old programming administrator, said:

I think it’s a case of how long she wanted to take and what we could afford. And we kind of worked it all out and everything that we needed to and the practicalities of it. And I think she was quite pleased to have a year out. I mean, I wouldn’t say she was naïve about what it would entail, but there was kind of like a thought that it was going to be nice being away from work for a year and everything like that, almost like it would be a holiday. I’m probably selling her a bit short there, you know, not quite to that extreme, but I do think there was an element of that there. And yeah, I’ll be honest. I thought that as well.

Ishan’s wife took the full year of maternity leave, and his initial statement indicates that he felt this decision was up to her as long as they could afford it. Indeed, Ishan initially took a fairly casual view of maternity leave, as he agreed with his wife’s expectation that it would be like “a holiday.” While he did not maintain this attitude once his daughter was born, it does signal that he accepted the idea of his wife taking a year off work, much of it at low or no pay, while he only took three weeks, consistent with British patterns of gendered divisions of work and family (Dermott 2008; Kilkey 2010). In addition to taking a leading role in decisions concerning the length of maternity leave, women often had great influence in how much leave their partners took, even when the options for paternity leave were much more limited than those for maternity leave. Paige, the researcher who took seven months of maternity leave, recalled asking her husband to take the second week of paternity leave:

Well, I think it was a case of I was sort of saying, yes, please take them, and he was like, oh, well, I’m not sure whether I should, and I was like. Because I think what we, what he possibly wanted to do was to take the first week immediately and then take the second week somewhere later on, which his work was flexible with, but I was sort of advocating for him to take them both together just because I thought, both selfishly for me, it was better for me to have him there at the beginning when we’re still adjusting at that time.

Paige’s husband contemplated saving his second week of paternity leave for a later time when their child would be more developed and potentially more interactive, but she talked him into taking the two weeks together at the very beginning. Paige explained that they have no family nearby and framed her pressure on her husband in terms of her own needs. Sita, a twenty-nine-year-old course administrator, relayed how her husband changed his mind about taking paternity leave:

He wasn’t going to [take paternity leave] initially but then he was like, no because then we did get to the house and everything and it was just, everything was new and it was near Christmas time and everything so he goes. Because if it snowed and the child within a few days would have to go to certain appointments and everything, you have to take them down, and because I had obviously just given birth, he goes, we don’t know, and I’d had stitches and everything, he goes, no, no, I better take them off. It would just be a bit helpful with getting the child to and from the hospital or wherever.

After these considerations, Sita’s husband took two weeks of paternity leave while Sita took the full year. These examples demonstrate the role of mothers as gatekeepers (Allen and Hawkins 1999) and show that paternity leave is often not solely about fathers spending time with newborn children but also about helping mothers so they can take on the traditionally maternal task of caring for children.

Swedish Partner’s Role in Parental Leave

While the fathers who used long leave in our study felt supported by their partners, mothers seemed to take on the largest responsibility in decisions both about length of leave and about how paid parental leave should be used. Mothers often expressed a lack of choice, either explicitly or implicitly. One mother reported, “You can’t have babies and then say that ‘I will start working next week. Now we put him at day care’. There are no other options [for mothers].” Many Swedish mothers still feel that they don’t really have an option concerning who is taking the main responsibility for the care of children. Some even express a fairly traditional opinion: “I think it became pretty natural that the mother stays at home [on parental leave]…we didn’t have any discussions that he should stay at home or that I should stay at home just because he earns more.”

On the other hand, Swedish mothers’ primary role in parental leave decision-making may also encourage fathers to share more leave. Sandra, a head nurse, reported on her own doubts about not using all the leave herself:

Why did you share the parental leave?

There are several reasons. But I have two children before and this was Per’s first child. I stayed at home with Emma and Anna, as are the names of my older children, all days except for the 10 daddy-days…. Now I feel that “No, now when we are having a child together, me and Per, then I want him to be involved from the very beginning.” I wanted him to stay at home to see what it’s like to stay at home with a small child, because it isn’t just “yes, we can rebuild the house at the same time, since Louise is so young and mainly sleeps.”

This was before she was born?

Yes…. But then I can say that I regret my decision. “Why did I say that we should share the parental leave, I should stay at home, how stupid can you be? How could I be so stupid? One should enjoy the time with the little girl.” But at the same time I feel: “No, I should not be so ‘mamaegoistic’.” I can see that today, when I talk with those who had children about the same time. Then when they started work after having been on leave for a year…. And the father hadn’t been so much on leave, there are more conflicts or discussions in the couple. It’s about the understanding.

While mothers often encourage their male partners to take leave, it is often a difficult decision. As seen in the above example, Sandra wants Per to be involved and have the experience of staying home so he can share in the caregiving and perhaps not take looking after an infant for granted. However, she also has some doubts about giving up more time with her daughter but realizes that this would be selfish (“mamaegoistic”) and could also lead to more conflict in her relationship with Per. Swedish fathers’ possibility for a longer leave increases their opportunities to bond with their child and this increases satisfaction of time spent with children (Haas and Hwang 2008). The importance of parental leave for fathers’ bonding was also expressed by Karl, a maintenance worker, when he told how he and his wife planned: “We only had it clear that I should be on ‘daddy-leave’ too, also pretty early. It was also based on how it may affect the child. Linnea became much more ‘daddyish.’ When she was so young, all our friends’ children cried when their father took care of them. But that has never been any [problem], she has spent a lot of time with me.” This is consistent with the fathering masculinity that encourages gender-neutral parenting (Creighton et al. 2015) and shows that a more egalitarian outlook at the outset can result in longer leaves for fathers (Duvander 2014) and more father-oriented children (Almqvist and Duvander 2014).

It was a stronger pattern for fathers with work- or study-oriented partners to use a longer leave or to use any leave at all, consistent with Geisler and Kreyenfeld’s (2011) study. It was also a strong tendency with mothers’ decision-making power in terms of fathers’ leave regardless if they used short or long leave. But all fathers who used longer leave did it with support or at least approval from their partners. Lena explained their division of parental leave:

Firstly, I am such a person I want to work and to meet people. Secondly, I think it’s very important that Stefan [father] and Nils [child] are bonding…. Then Stefan gets an understanding for how it is to stay at home. That I don’t lie on the couch and are having a good time the whole day, but there are things to do. So that you get a better understanding for each other. That I go out and work and are away from Nils the whole day and miss him while I am at work, so we experience both sides. It’s very important.

Lena’s work-oriented identity is consistent with general support for working mothers and a distinct distaste for gendered roles. Few Swedish women think being a housewife would be just as fulfilling as working for pay (Sundström 1999). In these cases, the discourse of sharing leave and care for young children (Almqvist, Sandberg, and Dahlgren 2011; Edlund and Öun 2016) is becoming more of a reality. However, while sharing is valued, mothers also expressed missing their children and the preciousness of time spent in child-rearing.

British Workplace’s Role in Parental Leave

British employers generally reinforce the idea that women are supposed to take long maternity leaves while men are supposed to take only brief leaves, providing more evidence that work organizations mediate the effectiveness of parental leave policies (Gregory and Milner 2010). Employers clearly know and follow maternity leave policy, which makes the maternity leave process fairly straightforward for female employees. For example, Paige, the researcher who took seven months’ maternity leave described the process as easy and flexible:

My experience of the filling out forms and expectancy about when you’re going to return to work and everything, you know, has been quite easy compared to what I thought it would be and I mean, there’s always the flexibility that if you decide, say I’m going to take six months, as long as you give them notice at least you know it’s not set in stone. You can change it, or you can come back earlier if you want or you can sort of it extend it, which I think is quite nice because you just necessarily don’t know how long you want to take.

Holly, a thirty-four-year-old administrator who took nine months of maternity leave, also conveyed the ease and flexibility in the process:

Yeah, had to go over and see HR to just because the maternity policy thing, had to go through that so I went over and chatted to one of the girls over there, but that was quite straight forward. It was just explaining what happens and what processes.

So no issues with you wanting to do the nine months?

No. Well, they don’t actually ask you. They just ask if you’re going to return and then they assume that you’re taking the year off unless you tell them otherwise when you’re on the maternity leave so I didn’t have to say, I’m taking this time off, I should be back here this date. It’s much more sort of fluid than that. They sort of assume you’re taking the fifty-two weeks until you give them eight weeks’ notice of your return.

Based on these examples, it is evident that employers start with the assumption that women will take the full year but that they may change their minds. While the process is also fairly straightforward for men, employers sometimes set conditions on the flexibility they provide their male employees. Omar, a thirty-two-year-old planning officer who took two weeks’ leave, noted the standard practice at his workplace: “They ask you whether you want one week or two weeks. And they kind of ask you when the, if your child’s not been born but when you’d like to take it. Would you like to take it immediately as soon as the child’s born or would you like to take it a certain time period after the birth.” James, a twenty-six-year-old human resources administrator who took two weeks, explained the conditions of his flexibility:

I left on the day, the day she went into labor so they were very flexible in saying, just keep coming in every day until you need to be off so I left every day knowing that I’d done all my work in that sense. She said as long as you can go at the end of every day knowing you’ve kind of passed everything on that you need to, it’s fine. You can go when you need to, which was good.

British employers have come to expect and plan for female employees taking a year of leave while they ask male employees to make sure everything is in order before leaving for two weeks. This is also reflected in the attitude that from a work absence perspective paternity leave is practically equivalent to a holiday. Henry, a forty-one-year-old research scientist, conveyed, “I said, ‘Look, it’s going to be soon.’ I’m sure colleagues knew what I was doing so they were able to pick up any slack. But then it was two weeks. It wasn’t really any different to going on holiday for a fortnight.” James echoed this by talking about leave “like any other two-week holiday.”

It is clear that men who go on paternity leave are expected not to disrupt the workplace or put an undue burden on coworkers. Omar felt there could be resistance to taking more than two weeks’ leave. Henry talked of a “culture of presenteeism” that discouraged people from staying away too long. Even when it is not explicit, the expectation that there may be resistance or costs to taking more leave encourages men to take shorter parental leaves (Bygren and Duvander 2006; McKay and Doucet 2010).

Daniel, a thirty-three-year-old lecturer who took three months using APL, made it clear that his absence did not affect others in his department:

I guess the fact that I wasn’t doing any, I didn’t have any teaching responsibilities for the period I was taking off helped because I wasn’t massively inconveniencing everybody. I wondered, would this, would the attitudes have been different if I’d taken leave and dumped a first year lecture course on some other poor member of the department without warning but as it happened that wasn’t.

Employers do not generally replace male employees when they go on paternity leave. As a result, fathers often feel behind when they return to work. Connor showed some signs of resignation upon his return to work after two weeks of paternity leave: “it was very much came back in and you have to get on, you just have to get on and do it. Old school mentality, there’s just work to do, you just have to do the job.” Ishan, who took three weeks of leave, said: “I really felt behind to be honest with you and there was an awful lot of stuff that I needed to catch up with and it was, yeah, I mean, it did feel like I’d missed a month, it really did. I think my colleagues did try and pick up as much as they could, but there’s only so much that you can do with someone else’s work load really.”

The situation is more mixed when women return to work after maternity leave. Several mothers said their employers were not only flexible about the length of maternity leave but also when and how they returned to work. Holly, the administrator who took nine months’ leave, was replaced with a temp while on leave and had a smooth return to work:

They’re really quite amenable here, to things like that. They’re quite, quite nice. They don’t feel upset that you’ve got pregnant and you’re leaving them in the lurch. They’re like, oh, that’s great. When you want to come back they say, oh, what do you want to do, as long as I suppose it’s not too completely drastic from the norm they’re quite happy…. But yeah, everyone’s been welcoming. There’s been no issues or concerns. I’ve just come back and it’s all clicked into place again.

Emma, a thirty-year-old customer relations manager, took nine months and then arranged a phased return to work:

I came back, when I was coming back I wanted to do it, a phased return so I used my annual leave because my annual leave had to be used either at the beginning or at the end of the maternity leave and so I used it at the end. When I came back in May I went part-time from May to July to, using up annual leave that I’d accrued so I didn’t come back full-time until July…they were fine with that I think. I’m not sure. I think a colleague of mine wasn’t sure that I’d be able to do that but he’d been looking at it from a paternity leave standpoint and said, I didn’t think you could do that, coming back part-time. I thought you had to use it all in one chunk. And I wasn’t sure at first whether I could use it, whether you had to use it all in one chunk, but they seemed okay with it. There were no problems.

Holly and Emma’s experiences contrast quite sharply with Connor and Ishan’s experiences of returning to work. These cases show the much greater flexibility employers tend to afford female employees. The exceptions to this pattern came when replacements or coworkers did not complete the task fully or properly. For example, Shannon, a thirty-four-year-old secretary who took one year, had this experience: “It was very difficult to go back in and unfortunately the person who covered me didn’t do a particularly good job of it and the academics who were, it was very controversial, the academics who were working on the course as well weren’t doing a very good job either so it was. I came back to quite a lot of mess and the first few months just seemed to me to be sorting out the problems of the last year.” For the most part, even with changing policies, British employers still hold gendered expectations, and fathers seem to sense the potential negative impact of taking too much leave on their careers (Fox, Pascall, and Warren 2009).

Swedish Workplace’s Role in Parental Leave

Swedish employers generally are aware of the strict regulations relating to parental leave (Haas, Allard, and Hwang 2002). Despite more gender-equal attitudes among employers and work mates, there are still pretty ambivalent attitudes in small companies toward fathers’ parental leave use, whereas it is more expected in larger companies. Lars, unemployed, who used to work in a small mining company reported: “He [the employer] said it was a right to use the ‘daddy-leave,’ but he was not directly positive to me using it…I thought that he might be cross but he could say what he wanted.” Lars was laid off, when he wanted to come back after parental leave. Jonas, a salesman in a small business added:

Yes, if I would do a break during six months, what is then left of my business contacts? It changes very quickly if you are going to be away. It has nothing to do with what you want. To teach someone to work for a year or so, that is not realistic, it takes quite many years before you know such a job [as he has]…. It’s surely possible if you want, nothing is impossible and no one is irreplaceable, there are others on the market who can offer the same services. Then the question is if you are in or not?

There are signs of more positive and gender-equal attitudes in big companies, which Tom working as an engineer in a large company reported about: “My employer is pretty positive to parental leave…they add 10 percent to the 80 percent [statutory replacement rate].” This is consistent with earlier research that shows greater company support for white-collar fathers (Haas and Hwang 2009). It was a stronger pattern among mothers compared to fathers with changing their work position after childbirth. Lena, a mother of two, exemplified this:

I worked at “Statoil”—[a petrol station] when I went on parental leave. The working hours were very unsuitable, so I looked for another job. When I was at home (on parental leave) with Nils, I applied for a new job, I got one at Dressman [clothing shop for men], where the working hours were better.

Overall, mothers in this study did not meet these difficulties with their employers when asking for leave. One mother expressed that her employer, working in a hospital where it was so common that women took parental leave, did not question her request for leave. This assumption concerning men and parental leave was not self-evident at male-dominated workplaces.

Men more openly expressed that they didn’t want to let colleagues down, which is consistent with studies that show that male workers who are more connected to their workplace take shorter leaves (Romero-Balsas, Muntanyola-Saura, and Rogero-Garcia 2013). Bo, a father of two, working as a carpenter stated:

We work a lot two and two, is one away, the other one suffers, because there are many things you have to be two for managing…. Since I work as a leader for the work team, I think a lot about it (the work). When Lovisa was born, I stayed at home for one week, then I took one more week, five or six weeks later, because I could not stay away from the workplace during a fortnight, that was too long.

Women did not really express collegiality as a reason to use less paid parental leave. The importance of the workplace also resulted in different outcomes for fathers and mothers. Some fathers commented that they were too restless to stay at home. This was not related to guilt in the same way as mothers’ conveyed guilt when expressing the importance of work, not adhering to full-time mothering. Lisa reported:

I didn’t think it was so funny to stay at home [on parental leave] and that became very evident for me when I was staying at home. The thoughts about work became even more intensive then…it’s the same things the whole time. The house doesn’t get nicer just because you clean it every day and the food maybe became better after you had made it five times, but there was no potential for development in the maternal role. Is it ok to say so?

Another mother, Linn, added: “I have to admit that I have to work, otherwise I will climb up the walls.” Here, we can see that even Swedish mothers feel guilt about working and enjoying work (Elvin-Nowak 1999). At the same time, work commitment is important for most Swedish women and, following a small dip, seems to increase after a few years of motherhood (Evertsson 2013).

Conclusion

This study addressed two research questions. The first question asked about the role of partners in parental leave decisions. Our findings suggest that both British and Swedish mothers are more involved in decision-making concerning parental leave than fathers. This is echoed in men’s responses as well as women’s responses regarding discussions with partners. British mothers claimed that their partners left it up to them while British fathers said they were satisfied with their partners taking as much leave as they liked. Swedish parents also placed more emphasis on the mother’s desires, despite having had a much longer history of shared parental leave. However, in the UK, this pattern of leaving it up to the mother almost always meant that the mother would take the maximum leave they could afford while the father would be left with the standard two weeks’ leave. On the other hand, Swedish mothers encouraged their partners to take longer leaves in order to share childcare and bond with their new child, and this bonding was seen as highly important for fathers too, as they reaped the rewards of their child becoming more “daddyish” and turned themselves toward caring masculinities (Elliott 2016).

The second question asked about the role of employers and workplaces in parental leave decisions. British employers still hold gendered expectations regarding their male and female employees. While employers seem ready to follow the parental leave policies put in place by the government, their experiences show them that women take long maternity leaves while men take short paternity leaves. As a result, the workplace is generally supportive of women’s absences, often hiring temporary workers to replace them while on leave. At the same time, employers do not quite know how to plan for men’s paternity leave absences, often treating these leaves as similar to holiday time, which means male employees are not replaced or supported before or after leave, and this may create fears among British fathers about taking too much time off (Fox, Pascall, and Warren 2009). In contrast, Swedish employers, particularly larger employers, are more supportive of fathers’ use of parental leave. These employers expect these absences and are more equipped to deal with new parents’ leave, as fatherhood becomes more visible in the workplace (Haas and Hwang 2009). However, similar to British fathers, Swedish fathers are still concerned about their leave’s impact on workmates. Both sets of fathers do not want their leaves to burden their coworkers. While less bothersome to Swedish mothers, the importance of a dual identity surrounding work and motherhood is clear.

We conclude that Sweden’s nontransferable paid parental leave policy promotes more gender equitable work–life balance arrangements. Feminism has clearly had an impact on the development of parental leave policies and the corresponding campaigns to promote not only fathers’ greater use of leave but also the decline of patriarchal fatherhood and its replacement with gender-equal parenting. While the UK’s recent introduction of shared parental leave in 2015 is a step in the right direction, we expect the large historical imbalance in leave taking between British men and women would benefit from introducing nontransferable paid paternity leave.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funding for this research was provided by the US-UK Fulbright Commission and a Davidson College Faculty Study and Research grant.

References

Abendroth

den Dulk

2011. “Support for the Work-life Balance in Europe: The Impact of State, Workplace, and Family Support on Work-life Balance Satisfaction.” Work, Employment and Society 25:234–56.

Allen

S. M.

Hawkins

A. J.

1999. “Maternal Gatekeeping: Mothers’ Beliefs and Behaviors that Inhibit Greater Father Involvement in Family Work.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61:199–212.

Almqvist

A.-L.

Duvander

A.-Z.

2014. “Does Parental Leave Change Gender Equality? Swedish Fathers’ Parental Leave and Their Subsequent Behavior.” Journal of Family Studies 20:19–27.

Almqvist

A.-L.

Sandberg

Dahlgren

2011. “Parental Leave in Sweden: Motives, Experiences, and Gender Equality Amongst Parents.” Fathering 9:189–206.

Bygren

Duvander

A.-Z.

2006. “Parents’ Workplace Situation and Fathers’ Parental Leave Use.” Journal of Marriage and Family 68:363–72.

Chanfreau

Gowland

Lancaster

Poole

Tipping

Toomse

2011. Maternity and Paternity Rights and Women Returners Survey 2009/10. London, UK: Department for Business Innovation & Skills.

Connolly

Gregory

2008. “Moving Down: Women’s Part-time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991-2001.” The Economic Journal 118:52–76.

Cousins

C. R.

Tang

2004. “Working Time and Work and Family Conflict in the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.” Work, Employment and Society 18:531–49.

Creighton

Brussoni

Oliffe

Olsen

2015. “Fathers on Child’s Play: Urban and Rural Canadian Perspectives.” Men and Masculinities 18:559–80.

10.

Crompton

2006. Employment and the Family: The Reconfiguration of Work and Family Life in Contemporary Societies. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

11.

Daly

2010. “Shifts in Family Policy in the UK under New Labour.” Journal of European Social Policy 20:433–43.

12.

Dermott

2008. Intimate Fatherhood. A Sociological Analysis. London, UK: Routledge.

13.

Duvander

A.-Z.

2014. “How Long Should Parental Leave Be? Attitudes to Gender Equality, Family, and Work as Determinants of Women’s and Men’s Parental Leave in Sweden.” Journal of Family Issues 35:909–26.

14.

Duvander

A.-Z.

Johansson

2012. “What Are the Effects of Reforms Promoting Fathers’ Parental Leave Use?” Journal of European Social Policy 22:319–30.

15.

Edlund

Öun

2016. “Who Should Work and Who Should Care? Attitudes towards the Desirable Division of Labour between Mothers and Fathers in Five European Countries.” Acta Sociologica 59:151–69.

16.

Elliott

2016. “Caring Masculinities: Theorizing an Emerging Concept.” Men and Masculinities 19:240–59.

17.

Elvin-Nowak

1999. “The Meaning of Guilt: A Phenomenological Description of Employed Mothers’ Experiences of Guilt.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 40:73–83.

18.

Evertsson

2013. “The Importance of Work: Changing Work Commitment Following the Transition to Motherhood.” Acta Sociologica 56:139–53.

19.

Fox

Pascall

Warren

2009. “Work-family Policies, Participation, and Practices: Fathers and Childcare in Europe.” Community, Work & Family 12:313–26.

20.

Geisler

Kreyenfeld

2011. “Against All Odds: Fathers’ Use of Parental Leave in Germany.” Journal of European Social Policy 21:88–99.

21.

Gregory

Milner

2010. “Fathers and Work-life Balance in France and the UK: Policy and Practice.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 31:34–52.

22.

Gregory

Milner

2011. “What is ‘New’ about Fatherhood? The Social Construction of Fatherhood in France and the UK.” Men and Masculinities 14:588–606.

23.

Haas

Allard

Hwang

C. P.

2002. “The Impact of Organizational Culture on Men’s Use of Parental Leave in Sweden.” Community, Work, & Family 5:319–42.

24.

Haas

Hwang

C. P.

2008. “The Impact of Taking Parental Leave on Fathers’ Participation in Childcare and Relationships with Children: Lessons from Sweden.” Community, Work & Family 11:85–104.

25.

Haas

Hwang

C. P.

2009. “Is Fatherhood Becoming More Visible at Work? Trends in Corporate Support for Fathers Taking Parental Leave in Sweden.” Fathering 7:303–21.

26.

Henwood

Shirani

Coltart

2010. “Fathers and Financial Risk-taking during the Economic Downturn: Insights from a QLL Study of Men’s Identities-in-the-making.” Twenty-First Century Society: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences 5:137–46.

27.

Hobson

Fahlén

2009. “Competing Scenarios for European Fathers: Applying Sen’s Capabilities and Agency Framework to Work-family Balance.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 624:214–33.

28.

Hobson

Lewis

Siim

Eds. 2002. Contested Concepts in Gender and Social Politics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

29.

Johansson

2011. “Fatherhood in Transition: Paternity Leave and Changing Masculinities.” Journal of Family Communication 11:165–80.

30.

Johansson

Klinth

2008. “Caring Fathers: The Ideology of Gender Equality and Masculine Positions.” Men and Masculinities 11:42–62.

31.

Kaufman

2013. Superdads: How Fathers Balance Work and Family in the 21st Century. New York: New York University Press.

32.

Kilkey

2010. “Men and Domestic Labor: A Missing Link in the Global Care Chain.” Men and Masculinities 13:126–49.

33.

Kilkey

Perrons

Plomien

2013. Gender, Migration and Domestic Work. Masculinities, Male Labour and Fathering In the UK and USA. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

34.

Klinth

2008. “The Best of Both Worlds? Fatherhood and Gender Equality in Swedish Paternity Leave Campaigns, 1976–2006.” Fathering 6:20–38.

35.

Klinth

Johansson

2010. Nya svenska fäder [New Swedish Fathers] . Umeå, Sweden: Boréa förlag.

36.

Lewis

Knijn

Martin

Ostner

2008. “Patterns of Development in Work/Family Reconciliation Policies for Parents in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK in the 2000s.” Social Politics 15:261–86.

37.

McKay

Doucet

2010. “Without Taking Away Her Leave”: A Canadian Case Study of Couples’ Decisions on Fathers’ Use of Paid Parental Leave.” Fathering 8:300–20.

38.

McKay

Mathieu

Doucet

2016. “Parental-leave Rich and Parental-leave Poor: Inequality in Canadian Labour Market Based Leave Policies.” The Journal of Industrial Relations 58:543–562. http://jir.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/05/17/0022185616643558.full.

39.

Moss

Deven

2015. “Leave Policies in Challenging Times: Reviewing the Decade 2004–2014.” Community, Work & Family 18:137–44.

40.

O’Brien

2009. “Fathers, Parental Leave Policies, and Infant Quality of Life: International Perspectives and Policy Impact.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 624:190–213.

41.

O’Brien

Shemilt

2003. Working Fathers: Earning and Caring. Manchester, UK: Equal Opportunities Commission.

42.

Plantin

2007. “Different Classes, Different Fathers? On Fatherhood, Economic Conditions and Class in Sweden.” Community, Work, & Family 10:93–110.

43.

Ranson

2001. “Men at Work: Change—Or No Change?—in the Era of the ‘New Father’.” Men and Masculinities 4:3–26.

44.

Ray

Gornick

J. C.

Schmitt

2010. “Who Cares? Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality in Parental Leave Policy Designs in 21 Countries.” Journal of European Social Policy 20:196–216.

45.

Romero-Balsas

Muntanyola-Saura

Rogero-Garcia

2013. “Decision-making Factors within Paternity and Parental Leaves: Why Spanish Fathers Take Time Off from Work.” Gender, Work and Organization 20:678–91.

46.

Rudman

L. A.

Mescher

2013. “Penalizing Men Who Request a Family Leave: Is Flexibility Stigma a Femininity Stigma?” Journal of Social Issues 69:322–40.

47.

Rush

2015. Between Two Worlds of Father Politics. USA or Sweden? Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

48.

Smith

A. J.

Williams

D. R.

. 2007. “Father-friendly Legislation and Paternal Time Across Western Europe.” Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis 9:175–192.

49.

Sundström

1999. “Should Mothers Work? Age and Attitudes in Germany, Italy and Sweden.” International Journal of Social Welfare 8:193–205.

50.

Swedish Social Insurance Agency. 2010. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency’s data warehouse STORE. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish Social Insurance Agency.

51.

Swedish Social Insurance Agency. 2015. Social Insurance in Figures 2015. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish Social Insurance Agency.

52.

TUC (Trades Union Congress). 2013. Just One in 172 Fathers Taking Additional Paternity Leave. London, UK: Trades Union Congress. https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/just-one-172-fathers-taking-additional-paternity-leave. Published June 13, 2013.

53.

TUC (Trades Union Congress). 2015. Two in Five New Fathers Won’t Qualify for Shared Parental Leave, Says TUC. London, UK: Trades Union Congress. https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/work-life-balance/employment-rights/two-five-new-fathers-won’t-qualify-shared. Published February 4, 2015.