abstract: 'Purpose This research article explores several questions about assessing

  the impacts of fathers'' parental leave take up and gender equality. We

  ask: How does the conceptual and contextual specificity of care and

  equality shape what we focus on, and how, when we study parental leave

  policies and their impacts? What and how are we measuring?

  Design/methodology/approach The article is based on a longitudinal

  qualitative research study on families with fathers who had taken

  parental leave in two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec), which

  included interviews with 26 couples in the first stage (25 mother/father

  couples and one father/father couple) and with nine couples a decade

  later. Guided by Margaret Somers'' historical sociology of concept

  formation, we explore the concepts of care and equality (and their

  histories, networks, and narratives) and how they are taken up in

  parental leave research. We also draw on insights from three feminist

  scholars who have made major contributions to theoretical intersections

  between care, work, equality, social protection policies, and care

  deficits: Nancy Fraser, Joan Williams, and Martha Fineman. Findings The

  relationship between fathers'' leave-taking and gender equality impacts

  is a complex, non-linear entanglement shaped by the specificities of

  state and employment policies and by how these structure parental

  eligibility for leave benefits, financial dimensions of leave-taking

  (including wage replacement rates for benefits), childcare

  possibilities/limitations and related financial dimensions for families,

  masculine work norms in workplaces, and intersections of gender and

  social class. Overall, we found that maximizing both parental leave time

  and family income in order to sustain good care for their children

  (through paid and unpaid leave time, followed by limited and expensive

  childcare services) was articulated as a more immediate concern to

  parents than were issues of gender equality. Our research supports the

  need to draw closer connections between parental leave, childcare, and

  workplace policies to better understand how these all shape parental

  leave decisions and practices and possible gender equality outcomes.

  Originality/value We call for a move toward thinking about care, not as

  care time, but as responsibilities, which can be partly assessed through

  the stories people tell about how they negotiate and navigate care,

  domestic work, and paid work responsibilities in specific contexts and

  conditions across time. We also advocate for gender equality concepts

  that attend to how families navigate restrictive parental leave and

  childcare policies and how broader socio-economic inequalities arise

  partly from state policies underpinned by a concept of liberal

  autonomous subjects rather than relational subjects who face moments of

  vulnerability and inter-dependence across the life course.'
affiliation: 'Doucet, A (Corresponding Author), Brock Univ, Dept Sociol, St Catharines,
  ON, Canada.

  Doucet, Andrea, Brock Univ, Dept Sociol, St Catharines, ON, Canada.

  McKay, Lindsey, Thompson Rivers Univ, Dept Sociol \& Anthropol, Kamloops, BC, Canada.'
author: Doucet, Andrea and McKay, Lindsey
author-email: adoucet@brocku.ca
author_list:
- family: Doucet
  given: Andrea
- family: McKay
  given: Lindsey
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-04-2019-0086
earlyaccessdate: MAR 2020
eissn: 1758-6720
files: []
issn: 0144-333X
journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICY
keywords: 'Canada; Gender equality; Parental leave; Policy impacts; Fathering;

  Historical sociology of concept formation'
keywords-plus: 'CHILD-CARE; PATERNITY LEAVE; INVOLVEMENT; RESPONSIBILITIES; DIVISION;

  POLICIES; CONTEXT; SWEDEN'
language: English
month: JUN 8
number: 5-6, SI
number-of-cited-references: '77'
orcid-numbers: Doucet, Andrea/0000-0002-6000-9029
pages: 441-463
papis_id: 6a118806d72839e7681827abbcf905c9
ref: Doucet2020fatheringparental
researcherid-numbers: 'Doucet, Andrea/ABE-7531-2020

  '
times-cited: '17'
title: 'Fathering, parental leave, impacts, and gender equality: what/how are we measuring?'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000524809900001
usage-count-last-180-days: '3'
usage-count-since-2013: '24'
volume: '40'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2020'