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Gender Bias in Parental Leave: Evidence from Sweden

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  • Elly-Ann Lindström

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of child gender on mothers’ and fathers’ parental leave using population-wide register data from Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. The results showed that a first-born son increased fathers’ parental leave with 0.6 days (1.5 %) and decreased mothers’ leave by a similar amount. Both the sign and size of this effect is in line with previous research, showing that these types of biases exist also in a society with top ratings on gender equality. However, non-traditional families, with high maternal relative earnings and/or educational levels, showed even larger gender biases which suggest that it may be mothers, rather than fathers, that are the driving force behind this child gender bias. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Elly-Ann Lindström, 2013. "Gender Bias in Parental Leave: Evidence from Sweden," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 235-248, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:34:y:2013:i:2:p:235-248
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-012-9324-1
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    Bias; Gender; Parental leave;
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