Can Earmarked Paternity Leave Shape Gender Norms?

Do public policies affect norms in society? Traditionally, economists have analyzed public policies primarily through their effect on (economic) incentives, but in the context of parenthood, incentives appear to play a muted role in explaining the gender inequality that follows. Policy makers commonly motivate earmarked paternity as a tool to change gender norms around parenthood by increasing men’s time spent on childcare and in turn improve gender equality. In this ongoing project, the paper presented in this ZEW Research Seminar asks to what extent earmarked leave affects parental norms and attitudes towards gender equality in the short and long run? The authors combine rich register data with a population-wide survey focusing on time allocation, attitudes, and gender norms in the field across a two-year window around the introduction of earmarked leave in Denmark in August 2022. First, they document that parenthood shapes gender norms. With parenthood, both men and women become less supportive of full-time working mothers, and more likely to believe that women are better able to care for small children. Prior to the reform, there is substantial variance in parental leave behavior, norms and beliefs in the population with low educated parents being more likely to specialize and hold more conservative views compared to parents with a university degree. The introduction of earmarked paternity leave leads to a convergence in paternity leave behavior; low SES-households respond more to the reform and change allocation of chores and childcare, as well as beliefs and gender norms.