Fatherhood and Men’s Working Hours in a Part-Time Economy
Fatherhood and Men’s Working Hours in a Part-Time Economy
Image Dusan Petkovic (via Shutterstock)
CRIS Scientific Seminar 2023-2024
Friday, June 21st 2024, 11:30 am
Sciences Po, Room K011 (1, St-Thomas-d'Aquin)
Fatherhood and Men’s Working Hours in a Part-Time Economy
Thijs Bol
Professor of Sociology
University of Amsterdam
How do fathers adjust their working hours after the birth of their first child?
Though the impact of childbirth on women’s employment is well-established, less is known about its effect on fathers.
We investigate this question in the Netherlands (2006-2017), a country characterized by a high prevalence of part-time work. We focus on two contexts that might shape the extent to which first-time fathers reduce their working hours after childbirth: the household and the organization. For this purpose, we use detailed longitudinal register data.
The results reveal that men’s employment displays a high degree of stability around the first childbirth: even in the Dutch “part-time economy,” the vast majority of fathers remain full-time employed.
We do find substantial heterogeneity in labor market responses following childbirth. Fathers earning relatively less than their partner pre-childbirth are more likely to scale down their working hours. The organizational gender composition is also associated with working hours reductions following childbirth. Although we find that fathers’ employment is contingent on both the household and organizational context, the substantial stability in men’s labor supply remains an obstacle to a more equal division of (un)paid labor.
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