How Do Men Talk about Taking Parental Leave? Evidence from South Korea, Spain, and the U.S.

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores how men in South Korea, Spain, and the U.S. use parental leave and shows how distinct labor-market structures, divisions of unpaid and paid labor, and parental leave policies shape individuals’ intentions and decisions to utilize leave policies. Using in-depth interviews of 80 men, we show two important findings: One, in Spain and the U. S., the systematized monetary support strongly encourages fathers to use parental leave whereas in South Korea, a generous policy becomes of little use because work culture heavily discourages men from taking leave. Two, gender norms shape the desirability of using parental leave regardless of the availability of the policy. An emerging group of men in Spain and the U.S. actively reconstruct what an engaged father should do whereas Korean men took it for granted that fathers should not take leave, instead should work even harder to be a responsible father. In the end, this study shows how the monetary structure and schema of what an engaged father should do shape how men approach and use parental leave in three different contexts.