Constructing parenthood in times of crisis

ABSTRACT

Iceland was hit by a financial crisis in October 2008 and in the following year the ceiling on parental leave benefits was significantly lowered. The subsequent drop in fathers’ uptake of parental leave raises questions on whether the crisis endangered gender equality when it comes to how parents arranged care for their new-born. The article explores changes in how parents arrange childcare with the use of paid parental leave and unpaid time off work by comparing findings from surveys among parents of firstborn children in 2003 and 2009. The results show that mothers of children born during the crisis were more likely to lengthen their time at home with the child, than those who had a child during an economic boom. This they did either by using the leave part-time, use vacation days or unpaid leave. It is argued that this could be a result of the fall in fathers’ leave use during the crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental leave
• Iceland
• financial crisis
• mothers
• fathers

Notes

1 A non-response analysis revealed that participants did not deviate significantly from the population, except that in 2007–2008 there were higher response rates from areas outside the capital region.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Iceland Research Fund [grant number 2013]; Icelandic Centre for Research [grant number 185387-051]; The Icelandic Gender Equality Fund.