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Why would reforms influence gender
equality in childcare and on the labor
market?
There are a number of potential mechanisms for how the reserved months
may affect gender equality in the home and labor market, and we will
mention some here. As the development of gender equality is not likely
to be the same in all areas, it will be important to be specific about what
dimension of gender equality is measured. For instance, an encouragement
of fathers’ participation in childcare through reforms in parental leave may
lead to increasingly shared childcare but may not lead to effects on other
domestic work or outcomes in the labor market. Also regarding childcare,
we may get different results depending on the measure; parental leave is
something often seen as a preferred activity while temporary parental leave
when the child is sick may be more of a nuisance and an unwelcome
interruption from work. It may more directly be the outcome of negotiation
between the parents. The standard economic theory would indicate that a
father’s quota would decrease the opportunity cost for fathers to be on
leave and put a cap on the length of mother’s leave. This makes
specialization less economically efficient and may thus have long term
effects both on labor market income and continued childcare division. It
may restrict the bargaining power of the often economically stronger father
and tend towards sharing of both labor market work and household work
(Becker 1981; Lundberg and Pollak 1996; see similar arguments for
reforms in parental leave in Germany in Schober 2014). This argument
assumes that fathers prefer to work over parental leave, an assumption
that is questionable. More clearly the reserved month strengthens the
bargaining power of the father who wants to take leave versus the
employer.
In a more sociological perspective gender is constantly re-defined in
interaction with how paid and unpaid work are structured (see review of
sociological and social policy perspectives by Schober 2014). Policies will
affect the idea of preferred behavior (Lewis 2001), and if the policy is
successful it will also change behavior (Pfau-Effinger 2005; Duvander and
Johansson 2010). It may also be that men’s increased household work and
childcare involvement may be caused by increased interest, especially in
childcare (Duvander and Andersson 2006; Almqvist and Duvander 2014).
When the mothers’ expertise at home is not monopolized anymore and the
father–child bonding is increasing, it is likely that fathers re-prioritize
investments in the labor market, and this may lead to decreased earnings
for fathers (Rege and Solli 2013; Tanaka and Waldfogel 2007).
Explanations of women’s potentially improved position in the labor market
as an effect of fathers’ parental leave use will primarily come from shorter
exits and potentially higher investments in the labor market. As fathers
engage in childcare, a part of mothers’ time will be freed and can be used