To Take Leave or Not to Take and How Long to Take? A Study on Swedish Fathers’ Parental Leave Use

Abstract

Research on determinants of fathers’ parental leave use often focuses on fathers’ characteristics but leave out that decisions are negotiated with the mother. This study asks how fathers’ and mothers’ characteristics as well as their combination are associated with fathers’ leave use in Sweden, a country where parental leave sharing is encouraged. The results indicate that both fathers’ and mothers’ income and education matter for how long leave the father takes, albeit in gendered ways. Fathers with the lowest income tend not to use leave but if the mother also have no (or low) income, he will use long leave. Among middle-income fathers, a short leave is most common but if the mother has high income, they will instead use a long leave. Fathers’ and mothers’ tertiary education are positively associated with leave and two tertiary educations lead to a long leave rather than a short leave.

Introduction

The question of parental leave use among fathers is receiving increasing attention among researchers and policy makers alike (Pizarro & Gatzia, 2024). The main reason is that fathers’ leave is considered a valid indication of gender equality in the households and on the labor market. It is assumed to indicate that parents share the childcare from the start, or at least that fathers are involved in childcare, which in turn is argued to spill over to the labor market by facilitating women’s return to work and reducing discrimination of mothers or even women in childbearing ages (Tamm, 2019). In addition to enhancement of gender equality, fathers’ leave is also promoted as children will benefit from two engaged parents (Norman et al., 2023). Furthermore, reduced child poverty will be an outcome of mothers’ uninterrupted work (Ferrarini, 2006), especially in cases of parental separation as children still mainly reside with the mother in all western countries (Hakovirta et al., 2023). Other argued outcomes are increased fertility levels and reduced levels of separation, although the selection is hard to disentangle from the causal mechanisms (Duvander et al., 2020; Lappegård et al., 2020).

Over time, fathers’ parental leave use has increased, not least as many countries have introduced policies that encourage sharing of leave. One recent example is the EU Work-Life Balance Directive from 2019 which stipulates that at least 2 months of parental leave should be available to each parent. The directive was enforced in August 2022, and many European countries have now reformed their parental leave regulations accordingly (Directive (EU) 2019/1158).

The main policy dimensions that seem to be important for fathers to share the parental leave are quotas for fathers, but also the replacement level, the length of leave, and the flexibility in how it can be used (Duvander et al., 2019; Wood et al., 2023). Sweden has long had beneficial policies in place, such as a long leave, generously paid and with very flexible regulation on how it can be used. But the most important dimension is the reserved part for each parent, a reform in the 1990s that made the majority of fathers use parental leave and since it has slowly increased to today’s 82% of all fathers using any leave during the first 2 years (Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (SSII), 2023). The reserved part was originally 1 month but has been extended over time to today’s 3 months.

So, in a context of beneficial parental leave policy, which fathers are not using the leave? The factors influencing fathers’ leave use are often connected to his position on the labor market, for instance, educational level, work sector, size and type of workplace, but perhaps foremost, income level (Ma et al., 2020). It is less common to investigate how mothers’ factors influence fathers’ leave, but it seems clear that higher education and higher income of the mother is associated with higher propensity of the father to use the leave (Duvander & Viklund, 2019). The fathers’ and the mothers’ income may have quite different association with fathers’ leave use, which results in a strong methodological argument to not entirely lean on household income as a measure.

Decisions on fathers’ leave are taken in a specific policy context, but also, perhaps foremost in the context of two parents’ situation. It has been pointed out that if both the mother’s and father’s characteristics are not considered, we run the danger of misrepresenting results (Moreno-Mínguez et al., 2023a). Often bargaining theory based on relative resources is used to theorize the decision-making on parental leave, but it is not clear-cut how this theory can be used, as preferences for leave will vary. How to share the leave is a question which is likely taken together by the parents with consideration of the family context and both parents’ preferences (Settersten, 2015). We will focus on how the combination of mother’s and father’s characteristics is associated with father’s parental leave use. We complement the idea of bargaining over leave with the idea of linked lives as to emphasize that decisions on leave are likely to be taken jointly in the household, even though interests and preferences may differ. We will address the question of which fathers are not using the leave in a father-friendly context with specific focus on disentangling how mothers’ and fathers’ resources interplay, but we will make note the same resources may be valued differently and used differently in the negotiation over leave, that is in a gendered way. In the Swedish case, some of the leave can be shared, others cannot be shared, and some can be saved for later periods in the child’s life. We therefore assume that the use of the different parts of the leave will be based on different decisions. In this study, we ask how fathers’ and the mothers’ income and education are associated with fathers’ propensity to take leave and for how long. However, we start with an overview of how fathers’ leave use has developed in Sweden since the 1990s up to today.

To use Sweden as an example is motivated by its role as a forerunner regarding shared parental leave, but more importantly because it seems that the characteristics and other determinants of whether fathers use leave are largely similar in different contexts. More specifically, it seems that the same factors are relevant and work in similar ways in different countries, even though fathers’ use of leave is of a very different magnitude (Duvander et al., 2021). For instance, income of father and mother matters in Norway (Naz, 2010), the United Kingdom (Kaufman, 2017), and Finland (Saarikallio-Torp & Miettinen, 2021), and educational level have similar effects in Germany (Geisler & Kreyenfeld, 2019) and Sweden (Duvander & Viklund, 2020). There are numerous studies indicating the importance of the work place (Brandth & Kvande, 2019; Kvande & Brandth, 2020 for Norway; Valarino & Gauthier, 2016 for Switzerland), and policy change is thoroughly investigated in context such as Canada (Patnaik, 2019), Germany (Geisler & Kreyenfeld, 2019), Spain (Moreno-Mínguez et al., 2023a; 2023b) as well as Sweden (Duvander & Johansson, 2012). Therefore, we argue that these findings are also relevant for settings quite different from Sweden. Also, for countries where fathers are not yet entitled to parental leave (e.g., the US, Petts et al., 2020; Engeman, 2023), we argue that the results of this study may be in line with what can be expected if, or when, leave available for fathers is implemented.

Parental Leave Policy in Sweden

Sweden was one of the first countries in which fathers were eligible for parental leave, and where they actually made use of this right. In the beginning of the 1970s, the new parental leave legislation gave equal rights to leave for all mothers and fathers, a reform considered radical at the time (Duvander & Cedstrand, 2022). It took some time for fathers to start using the leave, but gradually, fathers’ leave has become the norm (SSII, 2023).

The original length of leave was 6 months, and the parents could share these months as they preferred. It was, however, assumed that mothers would use most of the leave. A reason to not have a longer leave was to not create barriers to gender equality in the labor market. This argument was less pronounced when the leave was extended in steps throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The last extension was in 2002 when 1 month was added so the leave became in total 16 months (480 days).

In addition to the length of the parental leave, the benefit level has been shown to be important for fathers to use it (Karu & Tremblay, 2018; O’Brien, 2009). Originally, the benefit was set at a replacement level of 90% of earnings. The replacement level was reduced to 80%, and briefly to 75%, during the 1990s, as part of reductions during the economic recession. There is a ceiling to the benefit, and during the 1990s, it did not change along with the general wage increase. This led to an increasing number of parents, especially fathers, who hit the ceiling and thus received less than 80% of their earnings. The benefit level is today 77.6% of the normal income, and the ceiling has been slightly raised. The rationale behind the raised ceiling was to remove economic obstacles, particularly for fathers, to use parental leave (Proposition 2005/06:142). However, the ceiling is increasingly unimportant for employed fathers as the parental leave benefit almost always is complemented with payments from the employer, as determined by collective agreements. Such agreements vary in generosity, but most parents receive top-ups to almost 90% of full earnings for at least some months of leave (Duvander et al., 2022).

At the other end, for those fathers who have no or low earnings, the benefit is very low. A parent with no (or very low) earnings will receive a basic level flat rate (grundnivå). This rate was SEK60 (approx. 6 USD) per day during the 1990s up until 2002 when it increased stepwise to today’s SEK250 (just over 24 USD) per day. The benefit can still be considered low and a likely limitation to using leave for the group of fathers without earnings.

Another dimension that facilitates (or not) fathers’ leave use is the flexibility in how it can be used. Perhaps most important for fathers to use the leave in Sweden is that they can use leave throughout the child’s preschool year. Since 2014, 80% of the days should be used before the child turns 4, the rest can be used until the child turns 12. Another flexibility is that parents can use leave in up to as short periods as half a day and thus spread the leave over a longer period or use it, for instance, to prolong a summer holiday. The right to take time off from work is also extensive, with or without using parental leave benefit. This flexibility leads to large variations in uptake patterns by both mothers and fathers in Sweden (Duvander & Viklund, 2020; Eriksson, 2019).

The most known enhancement of fathers’ leave is however the quota, in Sweden referred to as reserved months. This part of the policy seems to be the most directly efficient reform to make fathers use the leave. The first reserved month was introduced in 1995 as a “use it or lose it” policy, meaning that 1 month had to be used by the father (and one by the mother) for it not to be forfeited. The first reserved month was introduced in the middle of the economic recession but still made a major change in fathers’ uptake of leave. The share of fathers using the leave increased over night from 44 to 77% and the number of days used among users increased by at least 10 days on average (Duvander & Johansson, 2012). The first month was followed by a second month in 2002 and a third month in 2016.

Another less known reform was the introduction of the double days in 2012, making it possible for the two parents to use leave together for 1 month. This seemed to have made fathers start their leave earlier in the child’s life. The double days also affected the use of fathers who earlier did not use any, or very few, days of parental leave (SSII, 2018).

Today, each parent is entitled to 195 days at an income-related level (105 transferable days and 90 reserved days) and those without earnings receive the flat rate. In addition, there are 45 days at a low flat rate (lägstanivå). Make note that the leave is individual but that parts can be transferred to the other parent. It is very common to transfer days from the father to the mother, but his signature is still needed. We argue that these parts of the leave are based on different kinds of decisions of the parents.

Over time, the leave has become longer, and today, fathers who use parental leave use on average 73 days up until the child’s second birthday (Swedish Social Insurance Agency´s data base, 2024). However, there is still a considerable group of fathers who do not use any parental leave. In a recent report from the Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (SSII, 2023), it was found that 18% of the fathers who had a child in 2017 did not use any leave at all during the child’s first 2 years, and an additional 15% used less than 30 days, despite the reserved months. Such short leaves often indicate that the father is at home but without sole responsibility for the child (SSII, 2023). The non-use is thus a substantial number and suggests that the assumption of a gender equal division of childcare in Sweden certainly does not apply to all parents. In comparison, virtually all mothers in Sweden use parental leave during the first years. On average, mothers use 257 days during the first 2 years, but as paid leave can be combined with unpaid leave, this is in most cases an underestimation of the actual time spent at home after childbirth (Duvander & Viklund, 2020). For details of the present Swedish parental leave, see Duvander and Löfgren (2024) also summarized in Table 1.

Table 1.

Number of Days With Parental Benefit as of 2024’s Regulation.

	Parent 1	Parent 2
Income-related days (transferable)	105	105
Income-related reserved days (non-transferable)	90	90
Flat-rate days (lägstanivå) approx. £18 /day (transferable)	45	45
Total	240	240

Source: The Social Insurance Code (Socialförsäkringsbalken (2010:110).

Why Do Fathers Decide Not to Use Parental Leave?

We assume that decisions on leave use of both the father and the mother are likely to be taken in the context of the relationship, jointly (Settersten, 2015). Mothers and fathers may have different individual interests but most of the time the common interest of the best for the family and child can be assumed. The individual agency to make decisions is therefore inseparable from the partners’ both linked lives (Carr, 2018).

As mentioned, bargaining based on relative resources is often used to explain how the division of household chores, including childcare, is played out (Lundberg et al., 1997). This contrasts the idea of decisions made within the family unit where resources are considered collective (Becker, 1993). However, it has been pointed out that neither of these perspectives will help us understand division of tasks or labor market positions, but that we need to consider the interdependent decision-making in a couple. Regarding fathers’ use (or non-use) of parental leave, Wood and colleagues (2023) show how decisions are made in the couple with consideration of not only relative resources but also couple income, gendered parenting norms, and not least information about leave. Drobnič and Blossfeld (2004) used the concept of coupled careers to spell out the relatedness between partners’ decision-making, arguing that employment and family decisions can be understood through the dimension of linked lives within the life course theory. The partners’ lives are not just linked but also the different domains of life are linked, in this case most centrally the work and family domains. Carvalho et al. (2023) point out that the dimension of linked lives in different life domains is underexplored both theoretically and empirically, not least as it is often taken for granted but not studied. This study attempts to specifically acknowledge the interdependency of the two partners’ characteristics where decisions may be negotiated and compromised within the relationship (Settersten, 2015). We assume that decisions on parental leave will be taken together, or at least with both parents’ characteristics, resources, preferences, and possibilities in mind.

One main missing piece in most theoretical frames on parental leave is whether the father or the mother would like to be at home, that is, what kind of preferences they have. To use parental leave needs to be distinguished from other childcare that is not paid and other household work that may (or not) be less preferred. Preferences for using leave are dependent on context where both constraints and availability are important (Hobson et al., 2011). Preferences on using parental leave are not only based on attitudes to childcare. Preferences can be enforced by economic incentives that most of the time lean toward a traditional division, that is, less leave for the father and more to the mother. Economic arguments may however also contrast with the economic ability, that is, fathers may want to be on leave but cannot afford it (Hobson et al., 2011; Reimer, 2020). Norms and attitudes will be determinants of preferences, and preferences are likely to affect how economic factors are evaluated (Duvander, 2014). Thus, it is likely that the preferences follow the lines of individual economic resources, but resources are also relative and what resources each parent contributes to the household will likely be the base on which leave decisions rest.

Furthermore, these decisions are within an institutional context, in this case the Swedish family policy, promoting leave of both parents, and resistance against fathers on leave is less strong than in many places, also when considering workplaces. In the Swedish case, leave use is thus set in a context where gender equality is encouraged but gendered parenting is still practiced. Therefore, we need to distinguish between leave that can be used by both parents and leave that is reserved to the individual parent. If leave could be used by both parents, it is at least to some degree a collective decision by the parents, whether or not they agree, and whether or not they are both consciously taking this decision. If leave is reserved, as with a quota, it will be more of an individual decision, but this is taken in the context of the parental union, as it affects both parts. If not used, it is a loss of benefit, but a loss that should be related to the forsaken income during parental leave. Another potential cost is the long-term and short-term consequences at work, even drastic ones such as losing one’s job, and more long term such as foregone career opportunities. Such costs can in part be foreseen but may be both exaggerated and underestimated. For instance, the risk of losing one’s job may be exaggerated, as the consequence is so severe, while the risk of lower career chances may be underestimated as they are long term and may be altered by many other factors. Earlier research has found that a long leave is costly for mothers, but it has been less clear for fathers, perhaps as they earlier have taken mainly short leaves (Evertsson & Duvander, 2011).

In sum, theories attempting to explain why fathers do not use parental leave need to consider factors at different levels and studies are often restricted to some of these factors. At the individual level, fathers are affected by their characteristics and resources as well as their attitudes and expectations toward shared childcare, and what consequences parental leave may have. Fathers will also be affected by the mother’s expectations and intentions regarding parental leave, which is based on her characteristics and resources. How the fathers’ and mothers’ characteristics play out in combination is a further dimension that can be framed within the idea of linked lives but where both relative resources and level of resources are important. This negotiation is set in a specific social and institutional context, namely, other parents’ use of the leave which creates norms, the workplace culture and pressure, and the framing of the national parental leave regulations which shapes limits and possibilities.

Despite the father-friendly policies in Sweden, 19% of the fathers to children born in 2017 did not use any leave the first 2 years, but the leave can be used also during the preschool years (Aldén et al., 2023; Duvander & Löfgren, 2024; SSII 2023). Also in the other Nordic countries, the share of non-using fathers is non-negligible. In Denmark, 32% of the fathers did not use any leave and this number has not changed substantially the last 10 years (Rostgaard & Ejrnæs, 2024). In Finland, the non-use is around 24%, but depending on recent reforms, the number varies for different parts of the leave (Saarikallio-Torp & Miettinen, 2021; Miettinen et al., 2024). In Iceland, 22% did not use the leave in 2021 (Arnalds et al., 2024). In Norway, the use among eligible fathers have been high at 90% since the quota was introduced in the 1990s, but make note Norwegian fathers’ eligibility has been dependent on mothers’ work status until recently (Bungum & Kvande, 2024; Kitterød et al., 2017).

Earlier research indicates that low earning fathers are more likely not to use leave. These low earning fathers are also more likely to have low education and be foreign born (see, for example, Ma et al., 2019; Aldén et al., 2023; Lappegård, 2008). In Sweden as in other countries, there is a mix of fathers who do not use parental leave, where not just the fathers with low earnings but also the high-earning fathers are overrepresented (Duvander & Viklund, 2020; SSII, 2023). In addition, there is a mix of reasons put forth by the fathers themselves why they do not use the leave but where economic arguments dominate (Alsarve et al., 2019; Evertsson et al., 2018; Hobson et al., 2011; Reimer, 2020). It is also found that many of the non-using fathers spend considerable time at home in other ways, for example, as they are shift workers, unemployed, or students (Kitterød et al., 2017). In many settings, the norm of fathers using leave is found to be indicative of a good parent with a close relationship to their children (Karu & Kasearu, 2011). The reasons not to use leave often have to do with the workplace culture and the household economy (Haas & Hwang, 2019; Hobson et al., 2011; Reimer, 2020). Even in settings where there is no legislated leave, like the United States, there seems to be strong support for fathers to be able to take parental leave (Knoester et al., 2021). Earlier research also indicates that mothers’ low income and low education, as well as immigrant background, are predictors of fathers’ non-use (Lappegård, 2008; Tervola et al., 2017). While the influence of mother’s characteristics has been considered (see, for example, Lappegård, 2008; Ma et al., 2019), the interaction between mothers’ and fathers’ recourses, in terms of income and education, is less investigated (see Moreno-Mínguez et al., 2023a; 2023b; Duvander & Viklund, 2020 for exceptions). In this study, we will fill the gap between the individual perspective and household perspective, by focusing on the parental union and studying the interplay between mothers’ and fathers’ characteristic in regard to fathers’ use of parental leave in the context of Sweden at the end of the 2010s.

Method and Data

We examine fathers’ use of parental leave for children born in 2016 and 2017 during the child’s first 24 months. It is during this time the child’s need for care is greatest and when most of the parental leave is used. Also, the leave taken during this time indicates that the parent is away from the labor market. Leave taken after the child’s second birthday are often in shorter episodes during public holidays or to prolong the summer vacation when children have started preschool, and parents are sometimes home at the same time (SSII, 2013).

The analysis is done with administrative register data from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and Statistics Sweden. The data include all residents in Sweden and thereby all children born and their parents. The data contain individual-level and longitudinal information on the connection between children and parents, and parents’ demographic data such as age, other children, and migration. Data also include earnings and social insurance benefits such as parental leave benefits.

The sample includes approximately 200,000 children, and we exclude children for whom the parents have different regulations, such as children born in another country and adopted children, parents to children that are multiple births, and same-sex parents. We also exclude children where one or both parents are deceased and children who emigrated. Make note that we also include children where parents are not living together, or who separate during the child’s first 24 months, as the right to parental leave is not based on residence with the child. Right to leave is based on custody, and we therefore include only couples with joint custody.

The dependent variable is the father’s days with parental leave benefit during the child’s first 24 months, categorized into 0 days, 1–90 days, and 91 or more days. The categorization is based on the regulations where 90 days are reserved for the father and forfeited if not used, while using more than 90 days can be negotiated with the other parent. Descriptive statistics show that close to 19% of the fathers use no leave, 45% use up to 90 days while 36% use more than that (see appendix, Table A1).

The analysis is done by multinomial logistic regression, and we focus on the importance of fathers’ and mothers’ earnings and education. Based on the result of the regression model, we estimate the probability of using 0 days, 1–90 days, and 91 or more days, depending on the combination of earnings and education, when all other variables in the model are set at the mean.

This method allows for analysis with multiple outcomes simultaneously. We observe which characteristic of the fathers are more likely to be associated with the probability of using 0, 1–90, or more than 90 days of parental leave (see similar approach in Saarikallio-Torp & Miettinen, 2021; Ma et al., 2019). To make the results illustrative, we transform the relative risks from the multinomial regression into predicted probabilities (Williams, 2012), so that the results can be interpreted as the adjusted proportions of the three outcomes.

Data on earnings are only available on a yearly basis; hence, earnings the year prior to the child’s birth is used. Earnings is categorized into quintiles by the income distribution among the fathers and the mothers separately, and those with no earnings are kept in a separate category. Information on highest achieved educational level come from the Swedish educational register and is categorized it into primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

The model controls for a number of variables that previous studies have shown influence fathers’ leave (see in particular Saarikallio-Torp & Miettinen, 2021, Ma et al., 2019; Lappegård, 2008, for other Nordic studies). Father’s and mother’s labor market position and work sector have been shown to correlate with father’s parental leave use (Duvander & Viklund, 2020), and also father’s place of residence has been found to matter (Ma et al., 2019). These variables relate to the year prior to the child’s birth. We have also included variables indicating whether the father or mother (or both) is native born or foreign born (Ma et al., 2019; Tervola et al., 2017), father’s age at childbirth, and the age difference in the couple (Lappegård, 2008; Ma et al., 2019). In addition, we control for birth order within this parental couple (Sundström & Duvander, 2002) and whether any parent has a child from an earlier union, which obviously affect the influence of birth order in the couple. Additionally, included variables are the child’s year of birth as fathers’ leave change over time (Duvander & Johansson, 2012), and whether the father moved to a dwelling separate from the child during the first 24 months, that is, in most cases indicating a parental separation (Duvander & Korsell, 2020).

Results

We start by giving an overview of the development of fathers’ leave use in Sweden in Figure 1. The first year is 1994 which is the year before the first reserved month was introduced. As can be seen, the share of non-users dramatically decreased with the introduction of the first reserved month, slightly rebound but again decreased in 2002 with the second reserved month. During the 2000s, there has been a slow and gradual decline of fathers not using any leave and when the third month was introduced in 2016 the decline continued. The number of days has increased over time and while 2002 indicates a strong increase in fathers using 2 months, the increase in fathers using 3 months in 2016 is smaller. The increase in fathers using more than 90 days, thus engaging in negotiation with the mother over the days that can be used by both, is gradual and ongoing throughout the period. In 2012, there is a temporal change in composition where the fathers using up to 1 month is increasing, probably related to the introduction of the double days, that is the right to use leave at the same time.

Figure 1.

Fathers’ use of parental leave, descriptive development 1994–2017.

We will now continue with the sample of children born in 2016 and 2017 and analyze the association between father’s leave and father’s and mother’s income and education, as well as combined effect (see the full multinomial regression model in the appendix). We start with the propensity to use various length of leaves by fathers’ and mothers’ income (Figure 2(a)–(b)).

Figure 2.

Fathers’ propensity to use 0, 1–90, or >90 days of leave by income: (a) Father’s income and (b) Mother’s income.

In Figure 2(a), it is clear that there is a U-shaped association between fathers’ income and fathers using no leave, with the highest and lowest earners having the highest propensity. The propensity to use a short leave increases up to middle incomes but rests at the same level for fathers with higher incomes. To use more than 3 months is slightly negatively associated with father’s income, especially for the two highest quintiles.

When considering mother’s income in Figure 2(b), there is a negative correlation with fathers using no leave. It seems to be no clear association between mother’s income up to middle income and whether the father uses long or short leave, but at high incomes of the mother, the likelihood to use a long leave increases while the likelihood of a short leave decreases.

In Figure 3(a), we consider which fathers are not using any leave as based on the combination of father’s and mother’s income. When interacting mother’s and father’s income, we find that a higher income of the mother leads to lower propensity of fathers to not use any leave among fathers with an income, especially fathers with income in quintiles 2, 3, and 4. However, among fathers with no income, the propensity to not use any leave is actually higher in cases the mother has high income. Thus, when the father has no income the mother’s income is positively associated with non-use, while for all groups of fathers with income the pattern follows the separate models shown in Figure 2(a) and (b).

Figure 3.

(a) Fathers’ propensity to use 0 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) income, (b) fathers’ propensity to use 1–90 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) income, and (c) fathers’ propensity to use >90 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) income.

To take a short leave, that is, within the reserved period or within 1–90 days, is quite common and about half of all fathers do this. It is least common for fathers with no income and fathers with very low income (Figure 3(b)). It seems that mother’s income is less important here and only in cases where the mother has high income do the fathers with middle to high income (q2–q5) less often use a short leave. Thus interacting parents’ income, it is clear that fathers with earnings in the four highest quintiles refrain from using a short leave when the mother has high earnings. This leads to that there is only a slight difference depending on fathers’ income in likelihood to use a short leave when the mother has high income.

So, which fathers use a longer leave, that is, more than the reserved period? It is quite clear from Figure 3(c) that both father’s and mother’s income matter. Among fathers in couples where the mother has no or low income, it is the fathers with no income who are most likely to use a long leave, and the correlation is negative in such a way that for fathers with no income, the higher the mother’s income, the lower the father’s propensity to use long leave. Among the fathers with income, higher income of the mother leads to higher propensity to use a longer leave, but only when she has higher than a mean income.

In sum, we find that fathers with no income more often refrain from using leave, but in cases the mother has no or low income, they are more likely to use long leave. Else, father’s income has a somewhat U-shaped association, where both low- and high-income fathers more often use no leave and middle-income fathers use a short leave. Mother’s income has a generally positive effect on any use, except for fathers with no income. It is the no-income and low-income fathers that use a long leave when the mothers have a low income, and high-income fathers use a long leave when the mother has a high income. Thus, it is mainly fathers with no income that differ, and it is when mothers have high income that patterns are different.

Next, father’s and mother’s educational level is considered, separately in Figure 4(a)–(b) and in interaction in Figure 5(a)–(c). Educational level may more clearly indicate the position at work, but the pattern is similar to that of income. Figure 4(a) and (b) shows that differences between primary and secondary education are slight but that in cases the mother or the father has tertiary education, the propensities for fathers to use long leave are greater.

Figure 4.

Fathers’ propensity to use 0, 1–90, or >90 days of leave by education: (a) Father’s education and (b) mother’s education.

Figure 5.

(a) Fathers’ propensity to use 0 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) education, (b) fathers’ propensity to use 1–90 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) education, and (c) fathers’ propensity to use >90 days of leave by father’s (F) and mother’s (M) education.

When interacting mother’s and father’s education, we find that fathers with primary education are slightly more likely not to use any leave, regardless of the mother’s education, but that two tertiary educations reduce the propensity of non-use more than one (Figure 5(a)). The same pattern is shown in that two tertiary educations lead to lower propensity to use a short leave (Figure 5(b)). These couples instead use a long leave, as seen in Figure 5(c). We draw the conclusion that both mother’s and father’s education matter here, and that two tertiary educations stand out as leading to a long leave.

Discussion and Conclusion

Gender equality is a major aim in many countries, and one of the main indicators is fathers’ participation in early childcare through parental leave. The reasons why this aim is more or less generic are many; it will enable mothers’ work and enable fathers’ contact with their children, something that is deemed positive for all parties in the family. There is increasing focus on fathers’ participation in parental leave and thereby increasing need to study the determinants of such participation. Our most important argument is that when the determinants of fathers’ leave are studied, both father’s and mother’s characteristics need to be considered as well as their interaction, an argument in line with the increasing number of studies on the subject (see Moreno-Míngues et al., 2023a; Wood et al., 2023). We further argue that there is a need to distinguish different parts of the parental leave as the negotiations will look different for parts that can be used by both parents and leave that is reserved for each one of the parents, typically in a quota. We also argue that the determinants of fathers’ leave use is to a large part generalizable between contexts, even if the leave vary in magnitude. We study fathers’ leave in Sweden which has the advantage of having high quality data on the full population, and a large proportion of fathers who use parental leave, even when viewed over a long period of time. Hence, the patterns we find are rather stable and not based on a novel situation.

The limitation to this study is foremost that we assume how decisions are taken in the parental couple. Wood et al. (2023) can with a mixed method design distinguish that both unitary and relative resources are at play in the Belgian context, and we assume the same is true in the Swedish context. As we are using administrative register data, we are not able to distinguish or find out what is the actual arguments of importance among parents; we have to assume such arguments based on factors we can measure, here income and educational level. However, our results indicate that interaction effects need to be considered also in the Swedish context. The other limitation with using administrative data is that we at least implicitly assume that father’s parental leave indicates time with the child, but this correlation may be faulty in both directions. Fathers may be on leave without being the main carer of their child, for example, if the mother is home at the same time and this is most likely when the father is using a short leave. But also, the other is possible; many fathers take main care over their children without using leave, for instance, by using unpaid leave or as he is home for other reasons, such as flexible work or unemployment.

The main contribution of this study are findings on the couple level and that the combination of both parents’ resources and characteristics are of importance when the sharing of parental leave is studied, albeit in a gendered way. Our results are thus in line with, for instance, Moreno-Míngues et al. (2023a) who point out the importance of family decision and consideration of the woman’s labor force participation in a different context (Spain) and at a very different level of leave.

We find that the fathers not using any parental leave often have low resources, that is, no income and low education. However, it also seems that fathers with the highest income tend to refrain from using leave. And the ones most likely to use leave are fathers with medium to medium–high income, but that this is especially true when the mother has a higher income. Mothers’ income and education are in general negatively associated with fathers not using leave, or, positively with using leave. When both parents’ characteristics are considered, it is also clear that two high educations lead to father’s longer leave, that is the one that is negotiated in the couple. This may not be true in all contexts and in the Spanish example, for instance, the negotiation plays out to increase leave when the mother has high education and the father does not (Moreno-Míngues et al., 2023b) thus indicating that negotiations may also look different depending on legal and structural context. In Sweden, two tertiary educations mean negotiating over leave that can be used by both parents, while the negotiation over the Spanish paternity leave may indicate negotiating over the woman’s possibility to participate in work at all, a situation that is almost always assumed in the Swedish case. So, even if we argue that determinants of fathers’ parental leave to large extent are generalizable between contexts, the decisions over leave are taken within a context and we need to be observant of what may differ.

The novel results here, that comes from interacting the mother’s and father’s income, is that the fathers with no income stand out in not using leave when the mother has high income and using a long leave when the mother has no income. We interpret this to mean that decisions are affected by both father’s and mother’s resources, but in quite different ways, something that may be more evident in context where female labor force participation is negotiable. To interpret the findings, it is helpful to consider relative resources, preferences, and how lives are linked. Mothers with low resources may either prefer to use the leave or they may not have the resources to negotiate the father to use the leave. It may also be considered in the best interest of the family unit to adapt to traditional roles where the father is the main earner, that is, norms and economic arguments both lead to this division, also in Sweden. Similarly, based on economic arguments, fathers with the highest income may not prefer to use the leave as they are losing too much wage and career chances by being home. That fathers with no income are not using the leave is harder to explain with economic arguments as they are forfeiting a benefit. Instead, other reasons are likely causes (Kitterød et al., 2017; Wood et al., 2023) and such are not always found in the administrative registers. It is, however, clear that the families where the father has no income are losing out also in this benefit, perhaps to be interpreted as an inversed Matthew effect. But when both parents have low income, it is more common for the father to use a long leave, something we can explain by linked lives and that practical circumstances probably are vital for how the leave is shared.

To use a short leave, that is, 1–90 days, is the most common pattern in Sweden, and this is practiced mainly by middle-income fathers. This quota or reserved part of the leave cannot be used by the mother, and therefore decisions are likely more determined by fathers’ characteristics. The decision to take a short leave does not require negotiation. Using short leave, reserved for the father, indicates not losing out on a benefit. It has thus become a norm to practice a certain degree of shared parenthood. But when the mother has high income and tertiary education, short leave is less common. Instead, longer leave is used by the fathers.

A long leave requires a common decision or a negotiation, and fathers use a long leave when the mother has higher income and higher education. Behind a father’s long leave may be a decision for the mother to be able to return to work, and attitudes toward gender equality may be stronger, as both parents have preferences to share. Our study does not indicate what factors are most important, but it is quite clear that in parental couples where the mother has high resources, fathers are using more leave. However, as mentioned, fathers tend to also use a longer leave when this may be deemed necessary, namely, when neither mother nor fathers have an income. In such families with scarce economic resources, it is likely that decisions on how to share the leave is based on practical circumstances, sometimes leading to the father using a long leave.

In order to understand when fathers use and when they not use any leave, one needs to consider not just negotiation by relative resources but also necessity by economic needs. This study indicates that both father’s and mother’s resources matter for whether and how long leave the father uses. It may also be that preferences are different at different level of resources. An example that different explanations have to be considered is the association of mothers’ income and fathers’ leave. Mothers’ high income in general seem to lead to fathers’ use of a long leave, but when mothers’ high income is combined with fathers’ no or very low income, he is least likely to use leave. These couple may base the decision on gendered care for the child and prefer that mothers are home even if this is economically not the most efficient solution.

We also want to point out that when fathers are not using any parental leave, the child is likely to have a shorter period at home, or the mother to use a long unpaid leave, thus losing out economically both short and long term. Ultimately, also father will lose out as he is not only forfeiting a benefit but also often forfeiting time to care for his child.

The results from this study are of relevance to other contexts and especially regarding what can be expected when the right to fathers’ parental leave is extended in EU (Directive, 2019/1158). However, it may not be realistic to expect immediate change in gender role attitudes and gender-specific childcare. However, our study, as well as many other studies, indicates that protected fathers’ right to leave is necessary for change to happen (Moreno-Míngues et al., 2023a, 2023b; Wood et al., 2023; Ma et al., 2019; Lappegård, 2008; Duvander & Johansson, 2012). But change takes time, and we see here that economic restrictions are likely to work against gender equal use. There is now a golden opportunity for research to follow the development in various EU countries that change legislation and in particular to focus on the combined resources in the parental couple, while considering that they are defined in a gendered way. In addition, we also need to follow how mothers’ and fathers’ reasoning and arguments about parental leave and childcare are transforming during this time of change.