(New) Fathers in Bulgaria: Towards More Equal Participation in Childcare and More Shared Parental Leave

Parental leave is considered the main instrument of social policy to provide a better family-work balance for young people. Bulgarian legislation states different types of paid paternal leave if a man has paid social insurance: 15 days leave after the child’s birth and leave transferred by the mother to the father after the 6^th month of the child until the child’s second birthday, which is taken by less than 1% of the fathers.

The study is based on research that aims to answer the following questions within the Bulgarian social context: How do fathers reproduce or challenge the traditional gender role models when they are endowed with the right to take paternal leave? Do women’s and men’s attitudes and practices toward childcare and parental leave involvement differ according to demographic and social status characteristics (age, education, socio-economic status and job position)? What are the barriers that hinder more equal participation of fathers in childcare and what are the drivers that might encourage more involved fatherhood?

The analysis is based on a mixed-methods study with 2000 parents with children up to 7th age and in-depth interviews with young mothers and fathers. The study's theoretical framework is based on the concept of (social) sustainability and its gendered nature.

The main conclusions are that there are generational and social status differences in fathers’ involvement in childcare and their participation in household tasks. The new fathers belong to the younger generation, taking also high social status positions (e.g. higher education), having more egalitarian gender attitudes and more permissive attitudes towards the use of parental leave. These generational and social status differences bring about (dis) continuities in the reproduction of gender (in)equalities in the private sphere and influence also social sustainability on a macro-level.