Availability of parental leave may affect social norms on gender division of childcare

In research published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, investigators have examined the relationship between countries’ parental leave policies and young adults’ perceptions of social norms for the division of childcare duties between mothers and fathers.

In the study of 19,259 university students (11,924 women) from 48 countries, the degree to which participants believed childcare is equally divided among mothers and fathers and the degree to which they believed childcare should be equally divided were both stronger when parental leave was available in their particular country.

Analyses of time since policy change suggest that people first interpret a new policy as a normative signal about what should be done, and it takes more time until they see this reflected in what other people in their country actually do.

“Our findings provide empirical support for the expressive function of policy. Nevertheless, due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, the present results should not be understood as evidence for causal mechanisms,” said corresponding author Prof. Simon Schindler, of the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences in Germany.

He and his co-authors noted that although they theoretically address the question of whether policymaking impacts social norm shifts, it is also plausible that existing social norms impact policymaking.