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Willingness of Spanish Men to Take Maternity Leave. Do Firms’ Strategies for Reconciliation Impinge on This?

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Abstract

The main idea proposed in this article is that organizations which provide facilities for reconciling working and family life among their employees—family-friendly companies—not only make it easier for mothers to combine work and family, but also, for fathers. Consequently, working in this type of environment may stimulate the father’s involvement in childcare. For the case of Spain, based on the sample of 3,094 males originating in the macro Survey of Quality of Life in the Workplace of 2007, an indicator of a family-friendly company was constructed. From this indicator, as well as other socio-labor variables that appear in the survey, a descriptive statistical analysis and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried in order to know, first, if working in this type of workplace exerts a positive effect on male workers’ willingness to take maternity leave (in the event of having a child); and, second, what is the effect on this willingness of some other relevant socio-labor variables (age, university studies, non-working partner, working in public administration and high net monthly earnings). Findings indicated that age, having a non-working partner and being high income men are factors reducing male workers’ inclination to ask for leave. And, conversely, working in family-friendly companies makes it more likely that males will take leave.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Escuela Universitaria de Estadística, Avda. Puerta de Hierro s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Lorenzo Escot

  2. Facultad de Económicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Dp. Economía Aplicada III, Campus de Somosaguas, 28223, Madrid, Spain

    José Andrés Fernández-Cornejo

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Campus de la Berzosa, 28240, Madrid, Spain

    Carmen Lafuente & Carlos Poza

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  1. Lorenzo Escot
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  2. José Andrés Fernández-Cornejo
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  3. Carmen Lafuente
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  4. Carlos Poza
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Andrés Fernández-Cornejo.

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Table 6 Variables used in this study. Spanish wording, English translation, and nº of variable in the questionnaire of SQLW
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Escot, L., Fernández-Cornejo, J.A., Lafuente, C. et al. Willingness of Spanish Men to Take Maternity Leave. Do Firms’ Strategies for Reconciliation Impinge on This?. Sex Roles 67, 29–42 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0142-6

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