Time-sharing in parental leave: Why and how fathers assess their time to care home alone

With recent developments, parental leave policies may also be seen as gender equality policies, namely when fathers are given substantial and non-transferable well-paid home-alone time and encouraged by the policies themselves to take it (‘use it or lose it’/extra-time bonuses). Portugal is one of the countries where this type of time was introduced: parents are given an extra well-paid month of main leave after birth (‘initial parental leave’) if each one stays home alone at least 30 days after the other return to work. Given the way it challenges traditional gender roles in family life and in the labour market, a qualitative study was carried out in order to grasp the motives of 24 fathers (non-probability purposive sample) who took this home-alone sharing bonus. Findings reveal that fathers’ motives impact the amount of time they take. From the interactions between two major motivations – care and instrumental – and other social circumstances, such as family negotiation and labour contexts, several time-sharing profiles are identified. Each one making a difference in terms of the amount of time shared by fathers, with those where fathers exceed the one-month bonus-sharing being of particular interest.