Balancing Care? the Impact of Spain's 2021 Equal and Non-Transferable Parental Leave Reform

There is a substantial literature tracing the effects of the length of paternity leave on fathers’ subsequent involvement in care work, with mixed results. Our study aims to contribute to this literature by analyzing the effect of a paternity leave entitlement of unprecedented length (16 non-transferable weeks) on father’s subsequent involvement in care work with particular attention to social class.

We leverage variation in paternity leave from a major policy reform in Spain. Until 2017, it lasted two weeks. A series of gradual reforms between 2017 and 2021 extended it to 16 weeks by January 2021, equal to maternity leave. In this paper we address the following research questions: (i) do fathers under the longer paternity leave entitlements participate in care work at higher rates? (ii) are the effects heterogenous across social classes?

We exploit this variation in the length of paternity leave in a sample of 4,100 parents of children born before and after the reform (2018-2022). The survey investigates the distribution of care between mothers and fathers before and after the reforms, as well as attitudes towards gender roles. Our sample is a mixed sample that combines an online sample (N=3,600) with face-to-face interviews (N=500) with low-SES parents who were interviewed in children’s playgrounds in low-income neighborhoods.

Preliminary results indicate a positive effect of longer paternity leave on fathers’ involvement in care work during the first three months after a child’s birth. However, this effect is short lived and disappears when fathers return to work. In terms of the mental burden of care, we find no differences between cohorts of varying paternity leave: mothers continue to carry the mental burden related to childcare.