During the last FIFA World Cup, the 2022 Qatar Cup, there were more men than usual taking paternity leave in Spain. This is a slight increase, of 1.3%, “a daily excess of more than 1,000 men” of work stoppages for this reason, but it represents a difference which is not attributed to an increase in births, nor observed in women. Three Spanish economists focus on this data as an example of how some parents spend part of that time on “activities unrelated to childcare,” they conclude in the article published by the Barcelona School of Economics ( BSE).
It’s a working paper, awaiting review and publication in an academic journal, entitled “Use of parenting time during paternity leave: childcare or leisure? “. The work is signed by researchers Libertad González (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona School of Economics), Luis Guirola (Bank of Spain) and Laura Hospido (Banco de España, CEMFI and IZA), who analyze birth leave – former paternity and maternity – in Spain with social security data.
The study looked at what happened to permits on the exact dates of the Qatar World Cup – November 20 to December 18, 2022 – comparing them with the times before and after, and using the year before and after as a control to avoid seasonality.
Obviously, they’ve seen this little upwards gap of just over 1,000 men per day being given time off in the premier football competition, which is not recorded among women. A gap which is also observed between employed men and self-employed men, who do not present anomalies in their licenses. The latter “have greater discretion over their working hours, which probably allows them to more easily adapt their leisure time to sporting events, even when they are not on sick leave”, specifies the article.
This daily excess of parents on leave shows an organization “of leave so that it coincides” with the Football World Cup, explains economist Libertad González, a motivation in which care is not the priority, but leisure.
“There are few fathers, fortunately,” estimates the researcher, who places the results in a broader picture analyzing the way in which men use paternity leave extended in recent years to 16 weeks, like that of women.
Without calling into question the extension of maternity and paternity leave, a pioneering measure in Spain which aims to advance co-responsibility in childcare and which benefits the vast majority of parents, Libertad González considers it necessary to shed light on certain behaviors of certain parents “who do not yet have such a culture of care” and their consequences.
The article suggests, for example, that “additional policies may be needed to effectively increase men’s contribution to childcare”, such as policies aimed directly at tackling gender norms and promoting more flexible working arrangements. .
A “summer effect” to extend vacations
Libertad González also highlights the existence of a “summer effect” in paternity leave, also mentioned in the article, which notes a peak in fathers’ leave during the summer season. Again, this is not observed among women, the vast majority of whom take leave continuously after the birth of the baby.
In this case, the increase “is higher, 7%, which means almost 5,500 men on additional paternity leave per day” during the summer, summarizes the economist.
“Compared to the rest of the year and compared to women, the number of men on sick leave is significantly higher during the summer,” indicates the article, which emphasizes that this is “a trend” which was also analyzed in Norway. The result “suggests that men use (part of) their leave to extend their summer vacation,” the researchers conclude.
Women as “primary caregivers”
The study also highlights that “men are much more likely to take leave over several periods (25% of fathers compared to 3% of mothers)” and that “they are also more likely to use at least part of their part-time leave (9% of men compared to less than 2% of women).
Although these measures are sometimes agreed in families to extend the care of the baby for several months, Libertad González explains that this also reflects that “the patterns observed among women in the labor market are similar to those of men in care” .
That is, while mothers mainly take on the role of primary caregivers and make their integration into the labor market more flexible by reducing working hours, for example, “the man maintains work as the primary role and provision care is done part-time,” González said. maintains.
The publication of the article comes at a time when the People’s Party (PP) is proposing to remove the obligation to take the six weeks of paternity leave after childbirth. A compulsory period which, with different opinions on its obligatory duration, can in any case be explained in a logic of care of the newborn in its first moments of life and of the health of the mother. Social and feminist debates on permits which, like studies on the subject, were ignored by the PP in its proposal for greater “freedom”.
