The impact of socio-economic status and gender role attitudes on sharing of family leave is analysed in detail.

Since the start of 2003, fathers in Finland have been able to take a new kind of paternity leave, which is unofficially known as 'bonus leave'. It is family leave intended for fathers. If the father does not use the quota, the family loses the benefit. The purpose of the father quotas has been to encourage fathers to take longer parental leave. The reform has not been the great success that was originally expected: In 2003, the bonus allowance was paid to 2,032 fathers, which was only 3.7 per cent of all completed parental leave periods.

The survey was directed at fathers to whom either a paternal allowance, a parental allowance, or a bonus allowance was paid during the parental leave period, which ended in 2003. Among other things, the questionnaire charted how family leave-taking by fathers was viewed at the workplace, the division of labour within families, and attitudes related to gender roles. Data on age, occupation, income, types of benefit, and duration of benefits were obtained from the benefit registers of the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

The most frequently mentioned reason why a father did not share parental leave or take bonus leave was financial; the daily allowance was considered inadequate. Other important reasons included the fact that lengthy leave would have an adverse effect on career or on work performance (parental leave) and that leave could not be chosen flexibly (bonus leave). A frequently mentioned reason was also that parental leave was mainly considered a benefit for mothers or that information on the benefit was not available (bonus leave).

The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela)
Mr. Pentti Takala, tel. +358 20 43 41966

29/06/2005

Pentti Takala

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Quality of life

Health