This essay has tried to find attitudes and experiences regarding involved fatherhood and parental leave. This has been accomplished through qualitative interviews with five fathers in Uppsala, Sweden. All the respondents were already on or were supposed to go on parental leave. In accordance with the aim of the study the interviews and the analysis proceeded from three topics: fatherhood and family situation; impacts from the daily environment; and effects based on their own fatherhood. These topics were constructed from the two theories that were used to frame the purpose of the study; the theories that were used were the modernistic gender contract (modernistiskt genuskontrakt) and hegemonic masculinity. The study mainly focused on finding what inspired the respondents to go on parental leave and how this differed between them. Apart from that, the study was supposed to find how and if the attitude of the respondents were affected by their local environment. Furthermore, the study intended to find how parental leave could change the attitudes of the respondents towards work versus family relations. The results of the qualitative interviews compared to the literature review showed that the respondents mainly chose to go on parental leave to strengthen the gender equality in the family and to build a stronger relationship between themselves and their children. The division of parental leave between the partners was mainly chosen due to practical reasons. Furthermore, the interviewed fathers got their largest influence from their own fathers and discussions within the family. Lastly, the parental leave gave the fathers a stronger connection to their children and a deeper understanding of having the primary responsibility for their children.

Human society is dependent on women who ensure their sustainability in the role of mothers. At the same time women participate in the economic prosperity of the family and society. The combination of these two roles puts them at a disadvantage in the labour market. This thesis aims at analyzing the current situation of women from the point of view of motherhood and position on the labour market. The theoretical part deals with two primary areas including social policy and the labour market. Social policy gives information about family policy and state support to mothers in comparison with other countries. The practical part, which is based on methodology, is dedicated to the analysis of the current situation of women and is divided according to the origin of the data. The secondary data were obtained from the public statistical database and the primary one through the questionnaire survey. The outcome of the work reveals significant factors influencing the age at which women have their first child, the dependence between parental leave income, the length of parental leave, and other answers to the research questions.

The aim with this case study was to do an intersectional, critical WPR (What’s the ‘problem’ represented to be) policy analysis of the Swedish governments preparatory work and government bill to achieve a more even distribution of parental leave between parents. In order to analyse the material, I used Carol Bacchi´s critical WPR approach to policy analysis. I critically examined how the preparatory work and government bill, that was later followed by the choice to introduce an additional reserved month for each parent, construct the ‘problem’, what presuppositions underlie the representation of the ‘problem’, what was left silenced and unproblematic and what effects and implications the representation of the ‘problem’ produces. Overall, the analysis showed that the problem is represented to be that the uneven distribution of parental leave is not gender-equal which could have negative effects for women. The underlying assumptions mainly focused on women, their participation in the labour market and other aspects that is connected to traditional gender norms and our doing of gender. Little, or non, attention has been put on intersectionality and therefore, something that is left unproblematic and silenced in the problem representation. The documents mainly talk about men and women, mothers and fathers which show that the preparatory work and the government bill did not adopt a clear intersectional approach and can, therefore, be at risk of being gendering and heteronorming in its effect.

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The aim of our study was to investigate how women in management positions experience the relationship between parenthood and their careers. We also wanted to study how these women experienced expectations from society on parenting in relation to their careers. The study's empirical data is based on semi-structured interviews with eight women in management positions. We analyzed the data from a gender perspective with the help of authors Connell's and Pearse's (2015) concepts of gender domain, gender regime, gender order and gender roles. We also used Elvin-Nowak's and Thomsson's (2001) discourses maintain separate spheres and availability and immunization. Magnusson's (2006) concepts of limitations and delimitations as well as West´s and Zimmerman's (1987) concept doing gender were also applied to the data analysis. The results from our study showed that female managers could be divided into two groups. One group where parenthood was valued higher than professional life and where the female managers had longer parental leave and more days of child care than their partners. The second group valued professional life higher than parenthood and the female managers in this group had shorter parental leave and fewer days of child care than their partners. However, all study participants, no matter the group, felt that parenting and professional life interacted with each other and that one sphere affected the other. Thus, the study participants could not at the same time be as involved in parenting as in their professional life or vice versa. Participants who chose to take greater responsibility for child care did not experience any views from society whilst participants who took less responsibility for child care did. The views were based on the expectations from society on motherhood in relation to a management position.

Background: Alcohol abuse among women on parental leave is a serious social problem. Scientific literature and research show motherhood is a risk factor for alcohol dependence. Women on parental leave can be considered a group at risk to addictive behavior. Aims: To investigate and understand the significance between the various drinking habits which exist amongst women who are on parental leave in Prague. To achieve this, the following research questions have been set: 1) Are there any characteristic activities, behaviours or experiences related to alcohol use that are repeated and have a ritual aspect? 2) What are the drinking rituals that occur amongst women on parental leave? 3) What do these rituals mean for the users? Methods: The data for the research aspect of the work was obtained using a qualitative approach. Information was collected from 25 respondents who had participated in the research via semi-structured interviews. The sample was formed by following a snowball sampling technique. Results: There were some stereotypes observed in the research group related to the consumption of alcohol. These are recurring situations and strategies. This research has shown that the most common use of alcohol is associated with the following: ritualized social drinking, socialising, but also serving...

The possibility to earn a living and support a family independently is still a utopia for many women all around the world. Many organizations are constantly fighting for awareness of these issues and strive for an improvement in women’s economic equality. One of these organizations is the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which in its preamble acknowledges that "discrimination violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity".By the tenth anniversary of the CEDAW, almost one hundred nations have agreed to be bound by its provision. Some governments have achieved their goals by replacing discriminatory laws and policies in order to guarantee gender equality. Others have even gone the extra mile by promoting legislation which in turn would make it easier for women to be able to develop their careers. For instance, some have provided longer maternity leave, and in a few exceptional cases, some others gave the possibility of joint parental leave, creating a co-responsibility between men and women. Nevertheless, some governments have not done enough to balance the gender gap. Some even keep discriminatory laws on the books despite having come to powerlifting the flag of social justice and gender equality. This has been the case of many of the so-called “Pink Tide governments” that ruled in the majority of South America during the first two decades of the 21st century. Despite the left turn of these governments, women in the region are still exposed to segregation and jobs with lower status or a lower payment. This paper focuses on this particular period of South American political history, with a focus on the government policies issued to fight the increasing gender gap on women's economic participation and opportunities. In order to account for the actions taken by these governments towards gender equality policies, we will analyze the maternity and parental leave laws implemented during this period, as we understand that women’s social and economic rights are closely related to their status and conditions at work. Finally, we argue that in this case, the color pink has not been representing women in Latin America.

The South African workforce has been transforming over centuries. Post -1994 South Africa brought about liberal changes in labour laws and policies, which saw women getting a four months maternity leave but there was a shortfall when it came to fathers in the workplace. The laws are mute about the father’s time off during birth of the child; the only provision made is the three days family responsibility leave. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions and experiences of fathers with regard to the absence of paternity leave in the legislation and their experiences in early child care with new-borns. The study used a qualitative strategy and a case study design to better understand the perceptions and experiences of employed fathers. A purposive and convenience sampling procedure were used, with a sample of 15 fathers with reproductive age ranging from 25 to 55. The fathers that were interviewed came from three different companies, where a semi structured interview was employed to collect data. Data was analysed using thematic analysis that allowed the researcher to identify the recurring themes. The findings of the study demonstrated a need for paternity leave to allow fathers to be involved with their new-borns. Various factors that came up during the analysis include bonding, the helper and supportive partner, and emotionally absent. These factors contributed to an emphasised need for paternity leave as participants narrated their experiences and challenges. With the implementation of paternity leave participants felt that ten days of leave provision in South Africa would be the first steps to moving towards gender equality in the workplace and strict measures need to be put in place to ensure that fathers do not misuse the paternity leave. The study recommends further research to be conducted on the mother’s perspective on paternity leave. It is also anticipated that the result may support the amendment of Basic Conditions of Employment Act, or develop progressive policy which can equally cater for both men and women in equal terms. Keywords: Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Paternity leave, Fatherhood, Family. / GR2018

I cover three topics in empirical microeconomics. In the first chapter, titled Investor Attention to Firm versus Market-wide Information Shocks: Evidence from North Korean Missile Tests, I study whether attention towards salient political events leads to underutilization of firm-specific information in the South Korean stock market. I find that companies with earnings surprises in the top quartile experience a 1.6% increase in the abnormal return on the announcement day, but a same-day missile test takes away 70% of the positive response. In the second chapter, titled Does Cultural Proximity Mitigate the Effect of Immigration on Electoral Outcomes? (with Gerard Domènech), we study the effect of immigration on electoral outcomes using individual-level administrative data in Spain. In a multiple instrumentations framework, we find that recent immigrants who arrived within two years are associated with an increase in the vote share of the extremist parties. Such an effect persists for additional two years but dissipates in the long-term. When split by regions of origin, African immigrants have the greatest impact, followed by Latin American immigrants. European immigrants do not affect the extremist vote shares. An analysis of the unemployment rate and the number of children suggests that immigrants tend to assimilate over time. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cultural proximity mitigates the political reaction to immigrants. In the third chapter, titled The Effect of Daddy Quota on Gender Labor Market Outcomes (with Petra Niedermeyerova), we study the impact of a father-specific parental leave policy on labor market outcomes in Quebec, Canada. Using a province-level difference-in-difference approach, we find that the so-called daddy quota increases the probability of employment for women and decreases the wage of younger men. The results suggest that the daddy quota promoted equal opportunities for women in the labor market. In a theoretical framework, we show that policy-driven changes in gender norms are consistent with our findings.

Our paper analyzes how paid parental leave schemes affect female labor force participation in Sweden. We examine this question on municipality level from 2003 to 2019. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of a policy reform made in 2016 and analyze how it mainly affects women and their participation rate. It contributes to the fields of economics but also has a sociological aspect. We expect the policy reform to increase the share of parental leave days taken out by men, decrease the women's share, and increase female labor force participation. The empirical results do not show statistically significant evidence that the reform in 2016 increased or decreased women's participation rate. However, the share of net days taken out by men rises, and the share of female net days falls.