Can Dads Learn to Look After Babies? The Effect of a Short Paternity Leave on the Division of Childcare and Housework

In order to promote gender equality and involve fathers in parenting, parental leave schemes for fathers have been introduced in many countries. In France, until 2021, fathers are entitled to 11 working days’ statutory, paid paternity leave, which must be taken within four months of the child’s birth. This article provides an evaluation of the impact of this paternity leave – which is short in duration but has broad coverage – on the division of domestic and parenting tasks between the sexes. The authors measure the effect of paternity leave using the Elfe survey, a national cohort of children born in 2011. The authors capitalise on the timing of the survey, which was conducted two months after the birth: some fathers had already taken their leave, whilst others intended to do so but had not yet taken it at that point. Taking paternity leave leads to a more equitable sharing of several parenting tasks. It has only a marginal effect on the sharing of household chores. The effect on child-rearing tasks is more pronounced among first-time parents and varies according to the father’s level of education. Paternity leave can offer fathers the opportunity to learn how to carry out child-related tasks and to involve them in their parenting role from the outset.