Maternity leave Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

D o maternity leave benefits improve social and economic development in low-and middleincome countries? Unfortunately, few studies explore the maternity leave-development relationship, leaving a gap in existing research. In our examination of different durations and compensation practices for maternity benefits, we find that benefits can decrease fertility and infant/ child mortality-dependent on the type of policy implemented, and a nation's level of GDP per capita and secondary enrollment rates.

- by and +1
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- Development Studies, Reproductive Rights, Maternity Leave, Reproductive Health Policy, Maternity leave

Which public policies most effectively promote gender equality and how can they be realized internationally to support women on a global scale? I first argue that longer periods of paid paternity leave must be embraced to challenge the historical conception of women as the primary caregiver in a male-female partnership and to bring men into the private sphere at the important confluence of a couple's childfree and parental lives. In order to broadly achieve these policies, I turn to international law. Building off Charlesworth, Chinkin, and Wright's observation of the international legal order's gendered nature, I demonstrate that the International Labour Organization's (ILO) core labor standards, as they are today, reflect a gendered understanding of the labor market and are insufficient to support the basic needs of a working population that includes both men and women. I further argue that a reimagined set of these standards should be incorporated into a World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Agreement on Labor Standards that would impose substantive obligations on Member States. Such an agreement would be consistent with the WTO's historical embrace of " embedded liberalism " and could ultimately drive domestic policy transformations benefiting women worldwide.

- by Taylor Stoneman
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- Feminist Theory, International Law, Gender Equality, International economic law

Ma contribution à ce bilan -- p. 74- 80.

- by Annick Vallières, Ph.D
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- Social impact, Parental Leave, Paternity Leave, Maternity leave

This study evaluated the effects of expected and perceived division of childcare and household labor on mothers' relationship satisfaction during their transition to pa-renthood. Mothers were administered a questionnaire during their third trimester of pregnancy and received a follow-up phone interview three months postpartum. During the second wave of data collection, all mothers in this study were at home with their child. Findings indicated that mothers with lower prenatal expectations about postnatal division of labor had greater relationship satisfaction three months postpartum. Additionally, mothers also had greater relationship satisfaction at three months postpartum when they reported receiving more help with childcare from their partner than they had expected during their pregnancy.

- by Anthony B Walker and +1
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- Motherhood, Relationship Satisfaction, Transition to Parenthood, Division of Household Labour
- by Nada Stropnik
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- Parental Leave, Paternity Leave, Maternity leave

Purpose-This article explores the patterns and dynamics of parenting-related leave policy reforms in the European former socialist countries (EFSCs). It sheds light on the development pattern of their leave policies and their potential to reproduce, impede, or transform traditional gender norms in employment and care. Design/methodology/approach-The article provides a historical comparative analysis of leave policy developments in 21 EFSCs in the 1970-2018 period. It systematically explores continuity and changes in leave policy design À generosity (leave duration and benefits level) and fathers' entitlements to leaves À as well as policy concerns and gender-equality-related implications. Findings-Following the state-socialist commitment to gender equality, the EFSCs introduced childcare/ parental leaves early. Nevertheless, they developed mother-centered leaves of equality-impeding character, in that they did not promote gender equality. The divergence of EFSCs' leave policies intensified in the period of transition from socialism to capitalism, as competing priorities and interrelated policy concerns-such as re-traditionalization, fertility incentives, gender equality, and labor market participation-influenced policy design. Leave policies of the EFSCs that joined the EU gradually transformed towards more gender-equal ones. Nonetheless, the progress has been slow, and only three countries can be classified as having equality-transforming leaves (Slovenia, Lithuania, and Romania). Originality/value-This article extends existent comparative studies on maternity/paternity/parental leaves, exploring the region that has been overlooked by such research. It provides valuable insights into the implications of intersectional dimensions of leave design as well as competing priorities and concerns embedded in it. It points to the methodological complexity of evaluating the development of parental leave policies in a crosscountry perspective.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSSP-04-2019-0065/full/html

- by Nada Stropnik
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- Fathers, Parental Leave, Gender equality policy, Paternity Leave
- by Andrea Bauling
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- Human Rights, Children's Rights, Surrogacy, Parental Leave

The presented research set in a Croatian context explores beliefs about parental/maternity leave and factors explaining these beliefs. The data was gathered on a nationally representative sample of people living in Croatia (N=1000). Participants were asked questions about their beliefs towards parental leave take-up by the mother and the father, their socio-demographic data, attendance of religious services, partners' income disparity and gender role beliefs. The results show that around 49% of both men and women believe that it is solely the mother's responsibility to use the entire leave, an additional 27% believe that the father should take some part of the leave, and around 24% believe that parents should share the leave equally. Men and women who support more equally shared leave take-up attend religious services less often and hold more egalitarian beliefs about gender division of labour, but do not differ in partners' income disparity. These results imply that gender ideology theory is more applicable in the explanation of beliefs about the gender division of parental leave compared to time-allocation theory. Results of the multinomial logistic regressions show that the strongest predictor of the belief about leave take-up is the gender-role belief. The less the participants believe that the gender division of labour should be traditionally divided, the more likely they are to support equally shared leave between parents. The implication of these findings is that shifts towards supporting gender egalitarian leave take-up will most likely not occur until the attitudes toward gender roles become more egalitarian in general.

- by Ivana Pikić Jugović
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- Parental Leave, Gender Role Beliefs, Maternity leave
- by Annick Vallières, Ph.D
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- Social impact, Parental Leave, Paternity Leave, Maternity leave

The European Union has been one of the main propellants for gender equality, and has contributed to build awareness amongst its Member States of the difficulties that combining work and family life is for working women. Even in its efforts to come up with a legal framework to battle for women's equality, in 2015, the European average employment rate of women was eleven points lower than men's rate, which was especially accentuated when women had children under the age of six. Estimations of the EU are that the gender employment gap will still be of nine points difference between the sexes by 2055, which is extremely worrying. The present thesis will first analyse the current EU's family leave policies, concretely the Maternity Leave, Recast and Parental Leave Directive, which will serve as a basis to understand the new European Commission's Proposal for a Directive on work-life balance for parents. Such in-depth analysis will help us identify the reasons why the current legal framework on family leave have failed to ensure gender equality in the labour market, and if the new proposal on introduction of paternity leave and improvements on parental leave would help solve or reduce women's misrepresentation and less favourable treatment in employment. Abstract en español Una labor de dos: Revisión del marco legal europeo sobre las bajas por maternidad, paternidad y parental para una efectiva igualdad de sexos en el ámbito laboral La Unión Europea ha sido uno de los mayores propulsores de la igualdad de género en los últimos tiempos, y ha contribuido a tomar consciencia entre sus Estados Miembros sobre las dificultades que significan para las mujeres combinar su trabajo y su vida familiar. A pesar de los muchos esfuerzos realizados para propiciar un marco legal adecuado para combatir la desigualdad que sufren las mujeres, en el 2015, la media europea de personas activas en el sector laboral variaba once puntos entre hombres y mujeres, que se acentúa especialmente cuando las mujeres tienen hijos menores de seis años. Las estimaciones de futuro realizadas en el seno de la UE tampoco son muy esperanzadoras, pues se prevé que en el 2055 la diferencia de la tasa laboral entre hombres y mujeres todavía sea de nueve puntos, lo que es extremadamente preocupante. En la presente tesis, primero expondremos cuál es el actual marco legal europeo en cuanto a las políticas de balance familiar-laboral, en concreto las Directivas de la baja por maternidad de 1995, el texto refundido de la igualdad de género en el trabajo de 2006, y la Directiva de la baja parental de 2010, que nos servirán [IUSLabor] como base para entender y analizar la nueva propuesta de Directiva de la Comisión Europea para un balance de la vida familiar y laboral de los padres. Con dicho examen, pretendemos identificar por qué el anterior marco legal no ha servido para asegurar la igualdad de género en el mercado laboral, y si la nueva propuesta de Directiva será suficiente para abarcar la gravedad del problema.

- by Sara Etulain
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- Employment Law, European Law, Labour Law, Gender Equality

This article aims to analyze the social and legal situation of women in the labor market, especially in relation to the impact which maternity status impresses upon this. The author intends to explain why women are discriminated in the labor market (notably once they become others) by applying current psychological and economic theories on discrimination. Furthermore, the International and Mexican legal frame works on the prohibition of discrimination and maternity protection are herein discussed and analyzed. Finally, the author proposes introducing and developing paternity labor rights as a necessary condition to eradicate gender discrimination in the labor market.

- by Barbara Stepien
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- Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Gender

This paper analyses the ways in which maternity leave has been reported, within the broader context of economic inequality, in the periods from 1971 to 1977 and from 1997 to 2001, in the right-of-centre British national press. The aim is to answer the following research question: Has the representation of maternity leave changed in the right-of-centre UK press with the adoption of new policies, particularly in relation to economic matters, and if so, in what ways? Discussions of maternity leave in newspapers are identified by uses of the phrase maternity leave. Selected findings are presented from a corpus compiled for this study of news stories (641,996 words) in the Times and the Daily Mail, in the years in which maternity leave policies were changed in the UK (1973, 1975, 1999) plus two years before and after each of those years. Combining qualitative with quantitative methods, the analysis shows that maternity leave becomes monetized in the later period, from 1997 to 2001. The economic term that undergoes the most noticeable shift in frequency of use is afford, which is used five-times more frequently in the 1997 to 2001 period. A close reading of all those stories containing the term afford reveals considerable opposition in these newspapers to the introduction of new entitlements for women with new-borns, a hostility that was not apparent when improvements to maternity leave provisions were first introduced in the 1970s. This paper addresses the representation of maternity leave in the belief that this system benefit (like any other state-backed benefit in the UK system) helps in mitigating wealth inequality, and it is part of a larger study exploring changes in the way in which British newspapers have represented wealth inequality in the UK from 1971 to the present.

This book explores recent social policy reforms and innovations in Chile. Focusing on four major reform episodes — health, pensions, childcare, and maternity leave — it unveils the complex interplay of factors that have shaped the successes and failures of actors pursuing positive gender change in social policy. It shows that even in highly constrained settings positive gender change is possible, but that its scope and quality are bound to vary in response to sector-specific institutional constraints and opportunities.

- by Silke Staab
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- Gender Studies, Social Policy, Political Science, Institutional Change
- by Roudi Nazarinia Roy
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- Psychology, Scientific publishing, Motherhood, Relationship Satisfaction

The presented research set in a Croatian context explores beliefs about parental/maternity leave and factors explaining these beliefs. The data was gathered on a nationally representative sample of people living in Croatia (N=1000). Participants were asked questions about their beliefs towards parental leave take-up by the mother and the father, their socio-demographic data, attendance of religious services, partners' income disparity and gender-role beliefs. The results show that around 49% of both men and women believe that it is solely the mother's responsibility to use the entire leave, an additional 27% believe that the father should take some part of the leave, and around 24% believe that parents should share the leave equally. Men and women who support more equally shared leave take-up attend religious services less often and hold more egalitarian beliefs about gender division of labour, but do not differ in partners' income disparity. These results imply that gender ideology theory is more applicable in the explanation of beliefs about the gender division of parental leave compared to time-allocation theory. Results of the multinomial logistic regressions show that the strongest predictor of the belief about leave take-up is the gender-role belief. The less the participants believe that the gender division of labour should be traditionally divided, the more likely they are to support equally shared leave between parents. The implication of these findings is that shifts towards supporting gender egalitarian leave take-up will most likely not occur until the attitudes toward gender roles become more egalitarian in general.

- by Ivana Pikić Jugović
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- Sociology, Parental Leave, Gender Role Beliefs, Maternity leave

Within developing countries, studies addressing the effects of maternity benefits on fertility, infant/child health, and women's labor force participation are limited and provide contradictory findings. Yet, knowledge regarding the implementation of maternity provisions is essential, as such policies could significantly improve women and children's well-being. We add to this literature using fixed effects panel regression from 1999 to 2012 across 121 developing countries to explore whether different types of maternity leave policies affect infant/child mortality rates, fertility, and women's labor force participation, and whether those effects are shaped by disparities in GDP per Capita and Secondary School Enrollment. Our findings demonstrate: (1) both infant and child mortality rates are expected to decline in countries that institute any leave policy, policies that last 12 weeks or longer, and policies that increase in duration and payment (as a percentage of total annual salary), (2) fertility is expected to decline in countries that have higher weekly paid compensation, (3) maternity leave provisions decrease fertility and infant/child mortality rates most in countries with lower GDP per capita and countries with middle-range secondary enrollment rates, and (4) labor force participation does not increase. Our results suggest that policy makers must consider the duration, compensation, and goals (addressing fertility versus mortality rates) of a policy alongside a country's economic development and secondary school enrollment when determining which maternity leave provisions to apply within developing-country contexts.

- by Kathleen M Fallon
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- Economics, Child health, Fertility, Economic Development

PurposeThis article explores the patterns and dynamics of parenting-related leave policy reforms in the European former socialist countries (EFSCs). It sheds light on the development pattern of their leave policies and their potential to reproduce, impede, or transform traditional gender norms in employment and care.Design/methodology/approachThe article provides a historical comparative analysis of leave policy developments in 21 EFSCs in the 1970–2018 period. It systematically explores continuity and changes in leave policy design − generosity (leave duration and benefits level) and fathers' entitlements to leaves − as well as policy concerns and gender-equality-related implications.FindingsFollowing the state-socialist commitment to gender equality, the EFSCs introduced childcare/parental leaves early. Nevertheless, they developed mother-centered leaves of equality-impeding character, in that they did not promote gender equality. The divergence of EFSCs' leave policies in...

- by Nada Stropnik
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- Sociology, Political Science, Urban And Regional Planning, Fathers