Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-212).

In the context of population ageing and its consequences for future welfare state support, the issue of low fertility in Europe has become very topical over the past two decades. The role of policy and gender equality in explaining fertility behaviour has gained a prominent position in the literature and even today represents two streams that are believed to be important predictors of the current fertility outcomes in Europe. When building arguments regarding the policy effects on fertility behaviour, authors often implicitly assume that everyone living in a given country is entitled to support from particular statutory policy and/or that each individual is entitled to the same amount of support. However, although everyone of reproductive age is likely to make a decision about having children, the policy support does not mean the same thing for each one of them. Instead the set of rules on eligibility conditions clearly states who is entitled to welfare state support and how extensive this support is going to be. These rules consequently mediate the impact a child is going to have on an individual’s circumstances and therefore may influence the decision of whether or when to start a family and how big this family is going to be. The issue of within-country variation in the distribution of entitlements to policy support has been largely ignored in the comparative welfare state literature and has not been sufficiently acknowledged in fertility research. By focusing on the birth-related leave schemes in Europe, this thesis aims to address this gap. It does so by linking the individual-level survey data from EU-SILC with legislative rules from 27 European countries. Such an approach allows the identification of individuals that would be entitled to birth-related leave and compares how their socio-economic situation would change if they were to have a child. Apart from that the thesis is set into a wider context of contemporary fertility research that examines the role of gender issues in fertility behaviour. As such the thesis is particularly interested in the distribution of entitlements to birth-related leave between men and women and in the analyses pays special attention to the policy designs that strengthen traditional gender roles and whether they are associated with fertility behaviour.

Thesis (M. Psych. Org.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Whereas the effect of motherhood on women’s earnings has been well documented, little research has been done in Canada exploring the impact of fatherhood on men’s earnings. Although international research has shown that, unlike women, men who have a child increase their earnings, a growing body of research suggests that this benefit may be mediated by whether or not the father takes a parental leave. Using the 2011 General Social Survey (GSS) on family issues and employing ordinary least squares regression I investigate whether fathers receive an earnings bonus compared to childless men and whether fathers who take paternity/ parental leave earn less than fathers who do not. Our findings show that after controlling for personal and work related characteristics fathers earn significantly more than childless men and fathers who took paternity/parental leave earn significantly less than fathers who did not. Potential explanations for these earnings gaps are discussed.

I en ny kontext där en berövas på sin vanliga sociala interaktion kan ensamhetskänslor uppstå. Att få barn är en annan omställning som kan ge ensamhetskänslor. Vad händer i mötespunkten av dessa två faktorer som kan leda till ensamhetskänslor? Och hur hanterar män dessa känslor? Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer har åtta män mellan 26 och 40 år delat med sig av sina upplevelser av ensamhet under föräldraledighet. Majoriteten av männen upplevde ensamhet under sin föräldraledighet i någon grad. Med tre teman som ”mäns upplevda ensamhet”, ”barncentrerat tänk” och ”copingstrategier” samt 11 underteman besvarar studien mer ingående hur män upplever ensamhet och hanterar dessa känslor under sin föräldraledighet. Det finns variation i hur mycket männen upplever ensamhet, vissa av männen känner sig exkluderade vid aktiviteter som mammaträning och brist på föräldrastöd från barnhälsovården. Gemensamt för männen är hur livet fått en annan meningsfullhet med barn och barnets bästa ligger ofta i fokus. / In a new context, where one is deprived of their regular social interactions, feelings of loneliness may occur. Having children is another adjustment that can lead to feelings of loneliness. What happens when these two factors meet? Through semi structured interviews eight men between the ages of 26 and 40 shared their experiences of loneliness during their parental leaves. The majority of the men experienced feelings of loneliness to some degree. Through the three themes "mens perceived loneliness", "child centered thinking" and "coping strategies" in addition to eleven sub-themes, the study provides more detailed information on how men experience and handle feelings of loneliness while on parental leave. There are variations to what extent the men experience loneliness. A common denominator for all the men is the feeling that life has a different meaning after having children, and that the childs best interest is the main focus.

This paper aims to explain how the interplay between formal and informal institutions affects the potentially gendered outcomes of political reforms. The case of the Chilean parental leave reform of 2011 is used as an example of a political reform addressing gender equality. Within the framework of historical institutionalism analysis of formal and informal institutions are made separately to proceed to merge the two and discuss how they interact with each other and affect the outcomes of the reform. The formal institution is studied by analyzing the construction of the reform itself and the informal institutions are studied by analyzing interviews with parents making use of this reform.                       The results of this research show that both formal and informal institutions follow a historical pattern of social norms placing the responsibility of childcare on mothers. Formal institutions seems to follow a certain path dependency in the way they are created and informal institutions affect and counteract the small possibilities to change given by the formal institution. Possible indications of critical junctures challenging this path dependency were however found and show a potential period of significant adjustment in informal institutions and the reform might be seen as an example of change.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på föräldrars tankar kring uppdelningen de haft av föräldradagar, samt vilka eventuella faktorer som skulle göra fördelningen mer jämställd mellan föräldrarna. Datainsamlingen genomfördes med kvalitativ metod i form av strukturerade intervjuer med utrymme för diskussioner. Intervjuerna analyserades med den fenomenografiska analysmetoden. Resultatet visade att ekonomin och kvinnans känsla av att vilja vara hemma var den främsta anledningen till hur uppdelningen fördelades mellan paren. Skillnader sågs hos de som valt att dela jämställt och de som hade kvinnan hemma den större tiden. Hos det jämställda paret fanns ingen större skillnad i inkomst samt att kvinnan ville arbeta och dela på ledigheten med sin sambo. Föräldrarnas psykiska hälsa visades ha blivit påverkad av hur uppdelningen fördelats, både åt det positiva och negativa hållet. Slutsatsen av studien är att de som valt ojämn uppdelning såg sig förlora för mycket pengar om mannen var hemma, både privat och företetagsmässigt. De problem som framkom vad gäller den ojämna uppdelningen sågs på flera nivåer. Dels individnivå där kvinnan helst ville vara hemma den större delen, på samhällsnivå där kvinnans låga lön i jämförelse med mannens bidrar till att mannen inte anses kunna vara hemma, ekonomin faller även in på den politiska nivån där ekonomin blir ett problem för hela familjen när kvinnans lön oftast är lägre än mannens. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the distribution of parental leave and finding out for what reasons the parents in the study had chosen to distribute it that way. Data was collected by structured interviews. The interviews analyzed using the phenomenographic analysis method. Results from the interviews showed that economic reasons and that the woman of the household typically liked being home more than her partner. Parental mental health appeared to have been affected by the division distributed, both in the positive and negative direction. The conclusion of the study are that those who have chosen uneven division saw themselves lose too much money if the man was stay at home, both private and corporate terms. The problems that showed was the unequal division were seen at several levels. Partly individual level where the woman would rather be at home most of the time. At the community level where the woman's low wages in comparison with men's contributes to men is not considered to be at home, the economy will also fall into the political level where the economy is becoming a problem for the whole family when the woman salaries usually are lower than men's.

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request