Where’s dad? Exploring the low take-up of inclusive parenting policies in the UK

ABSTRACT

This research explores approaches to promoting gender equality in the workplace by highlighting barriers to take-up of statutory policies designed to increase fathers’ involvement in childcare. Specifically, the paper examines why take-up of Shared Parental Leave (SPL), designed to improve gender equality in the workplace and home, has been low in the UK. There is a dearth of academic literature in this area. Extant grey literature suggests financial barriers, maternal gatekeeping and the perceived effects of extended leave on fathers’ careers are key, but fails to explore other barriers, or the variations in take-up. We interviewed 70 men and women entitled to SPL to address these limitations. We identify new barriers, notably poor policy communication at an organizational level,  perceived policy complexity and societal expectations around maternal identities, while also showing how these barriers affect different groups of parents. We find professional couples are most likely to take SPL, particularly where the mother earns more or the father’s company enhances Shared Parental Pay. The complex, multiple barriers parents face also differ, according to the couple’s educational background and the workplace culture. Finally, we offer recommendations for increasing SPL take-up and driving workplace gender equality in the UK and internationally.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent
• family friendly
• gender equality
• father
• parental leave
• inclusive
• childcare
• caring
• flexible working

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Holly Birkett is a lecturer and academic researcher at Birmingham Business School. She is a Co-Director of the Work Inclusivity Research Cluster (WIRC), an Associate of the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Responsible Business and a member of the Department of Management. Holly conducts research on work inclusion and individual identity. She has undertaken projects on topics including parents at work, careers and careers transitions, social mobility, social enterprise and retirement and has published in academic journals such as The Journal of Vocational Behaviour. She is an invited member of the Government Equalities Office WAGE research programme on family friendly working and an Academic Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD).

Dr. Sarah Forbes is a lecturer and academic researcher at Birmingham University Business School. She is a member of the Responsible Marketing group, Work Inclusivity Research Cluster and an Associate of the Centre for Responsible Business. Sarah's research focuses on encouraging voluntary behavioural. She is a member of the Government Equalities Office WAGE research programme on family friendly working and a member of the Academy of Marketing and Australasian Association of Social Marketing.

Notes

1 According to data collected by Working Families (a charity working in this field), from April to Dec 2015 between 0.5 and 2 per cent of eligible fathers made use of SPL (Norman and Fagan 2017).

2 There is a more extensive literature on European equivalents of SPL which we return to when we discuss putative ways forward in Section 4.

3 The UK still only offers fathers 2 weeks non-transferable statutory paid paternity leave, which puts them in the middle of all OECD table of countries and significantly behind South Korea which offers 53 weeks or France which offers 28 weeks leave.

4 This is often referred to as maternal transfer.

5 The main criteria are:

Parent 1: must have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the baby is due (or before being matched with an adopted child)

Parent 2: must have worked for at least 26 weeks in the 66 weeks leading up to the due date + earned at least £30/week (maternity allowance threshold) in 13 of the 66 weeks

6 This data needs to be treated with caution as the HRMC figures only include parents using SPL within the statutory paid period and not parents who have taken SPL after the statutory paid period has come to an end.

7 Maternal Gatekeeping has been defined as – “A collection of beliefs and behaviours that ultimately inhibit a collaborative effort between men and women in family work by limiting men’s opportunities for learning and growing through caring for home and children” (Allen and Hawkins 1999, 200)

8 In the UK Parental Leave is a separate policy which allows eligible parents of children under 18 to take unpaid leave to look after their child’s welfare.

9 In the UK, mothers are legally entitled to paid breastfeeding breaks or a shorter working day when their child is under 12 months old as per health and safety and sex discrimination laws.