“Who if Not a Mother?”: Development of Parental Leave Design in Russia

Abstract

There is an established system of parental leave in Russia. According to the legislation, parental leave can be used not only by the mother, but also by the father or other relative of the child. Nevertheless, men rarely use this right; according to statistics, only 2% of Russian fathers go on parental leave instead of their spouse. The paper seeks to identify the underlying causes of this situation. To study the problem, we conducted a series of in-depth semi-formal interviews with mothers and fathers whose families were eligible for parental leave at the time of the study (n = 30). We have identified the perception of this stage of family life by both parents (as a “leave-work” or “leave-vacation”), the reasons for fathers’ refusal to actively engage in the situation, including the likelihood of mothers’ unwillingness to let fathers be involved. The reasons are classified into objective and subjective. Gender stereotypes are revealed from two positions: female and male. The results of the study indicate the need to transform the current system of parental leave in Russia and purposefully work with public opinion in this area.

Author Biographies

Anna P. Bagirova, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Anna P. Bagirova, Dr. Sci. (Economics), Professor of economics and sociology at the Ural Federal University (Russia). Her research interests include demographical processes and their determinants. She also explores issues of labor economics and the sociology of labor. She is a doctoral supervisor and a member of the International Sociological Association.

Natalia D. Blednova, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Natalia D. Blednova is a graduate student at the School of Public Administration and Entrepreneurship, Ural Federal University. Her research interests include balancing professional and parental labor.

Aleksandr V. Neshataev, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Aleksandr V. Neshataev is a graduate student and an assistant at the School of Public Administration and Entrepreneurship, Ural Federal University. His research interests include depressed territories.

References


  • Abbasov, R. S., Liabakh, A. Iu., & Saberova, E. V. (2020). Sotsiologicheskoe issledovanie problemy rozhdaemosti v sovremennoi Rossii [Sociological study of the problem of fertility in modern Russia]. GosReg: Gosudarstvennoe regulirovanie obshchestvennykh otnoshenii, 3, 198–211.

  • Almazova O., & Il'inykh, A. (2015). Sovremennoe ottsovstvo: Teoretikoprakticheskii analiz uchastiia ottsov v vospitanii detei mladencheskogo i rannego vozrasta [Modern paternity: Theoretical and practical analysis of participation of fathers in education of children at an early age]. Spetsial’noe obrazovanie, 38(2), 5–16.

  • Becker, G. S. (1993). A treatise on the family (Enlarged ed.). Harvard University Press.

  • Brandth, B., & Kvande, E. (2018). Masculinity and fathering alone during parental leave. Men and Masculinities, 21(1), 72–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X16652659

  • Bünning, M., & Pollmann-Schult, M. (2016). Family policies and fathers’ working hours: Cross-national differences in the paternal labour supply. Work, Employment and Society, 30(2), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017015578999

  • Canaan, S. (2022). Parental leave, household specialization and children’s well-being. Labour Economics, 75, Article 102127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102127

  • Chalmers, B., & Meyer, D. (1996). What men say about pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, 17(1), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.3109/01674829609025663

  • Doucet, A. (2004). Fathers and the responsibility for children: A puzzle and a tension. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 28(2), 103–114.

  • Evertsson, M. (2016). Parental leave and careers: Women’s and men’s wages after parental leave in Sweden. Advances in Life Course Research, 29, 26–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2016.02.002

  • Gangl, M., & Ziefle, A. (2009). Motherhood, labor force behavior, and women’s careers: An empirical assessment of the wage penalty for motherhood in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Demography, 46(2), 341–369. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.0.0056

  • Ilyshev, A. M., & Bagirova, A. P. (2010). Vvedenie v reproduktivistiku. Stanovlenie nauki o vosproizvodstve cheloveka [Introduction to reproductivism. Formation of the science of human reproduction]. Finansy i statistika.

  • Johansson, T. (2011). Fatherhood in transition: Paternity leave and changing masculinities. Journal of Family Communication, 11(3), 165–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2011.561137

  • Kaufman, G., & Almqvist, A.-L. (2017). The role of partners and workplaces in British and Swedish men’s parental leave decisions. Men and Masculinities, 20(5), 533–551. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X17727570

  • Kuhlenkasper, T., & Kauermann, G. (2010). Duration of maternity leave in Germany: A case study of nonparametric hazard models and penalized splines. Labour Economics, 17(3), 466–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2009.12.001

  • Lamb, M. E., & Lewis, C. (2010). The development and significance of father-child relationships in two-parent families. In M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (5th ed., pp. 94–153). John Wiley & Sons.

  • Lidbeck, M., & Boström, P. K. (2021). “I believe it’s important for kids to know they have two parents”: Parents’ experiences of equally shared parental leave in Sweden. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 38(1), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520961841

  • Lomazzi, V., Israel, S., & Crespi, I. (2018). Gender equality in Europe and the effect of work–family balance policies on gender-role attitudes. Social Sciences, 8(1), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8010005

  • Moreva, G. I., & Sanochkina, A. V. (2020). Sviaz’ sub’ektivnoi otsenki samorealizatsii zhenshchin i otnosheniia k raznym storonam deistvitel’nosti v periode otpuska po ukhodu za rebenkom [Connection between the subjective assessment of women’s selfrealization and attitudes to different sides of reality in the period of parental leave]. Experimental Psychology (Russia), 13(3), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.17759/exppsy.2020130312

  • O’Brien, M. (2009). Fathers, parental leave policies, and infant quality of life: International perspectives and policy impact. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 624(1), 190–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716209334349

  • Olsavsky, A. L., Yan, J., Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J., & Kamp Dush, C. M. (2020). New fathers’ perceptions of dyadic adjustment: The roles of maternal gatekeeping and coparenting closeness. Family Process, 59(2), 571–585. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12451

  • Patnaik, A. (2019). Reserving time for daddy: The consequences of fathers’ quotas. Journal of Labor Economics, 37(4), 1009–1059. https://doi.org/10.1086/703115

  • Rege, M., & Solli, I. F. (2013). The impact of paternity leave on fathers’ future earnings. Demography, 50(6), 2255–2277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0233-1

  • Rocha, M. (2021). Promoting gender equality through regulation: The case of parental leave. Theory and Practice of Legislation, 9(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/20508840.2020.1830565

  • Rossin-Slater, M. (2017). Maternity and family leave policy (Working Paper No. 23069). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w23069

  • Schober, P. S., & Zoch, G. (2019) Change in the gender division of domestic work after mothers or fathers took leave: Exploring alternative explanations. European Societies, 21(1), 158–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2018.1465989

  • Strunina, S. A. (2022). Spetsifika tsennostno-motivatsionnoi sfery zhenshchin na etape vozvrashcheniia k trudovoi deiatel’nosti posle otpuska po ukhodu za rebenkom [Specifics of the value-motivational sphere of women at the stage of returning to work after parental leave]. In G. Iu. Guliaev (Ed.), Proceedings of the 25th International Scientific and Practical Conference “Sovremennaya nauka: Aktual’nye voprosy, dostizheniya i innovacii” [Modern science: Current issues, achievements and innovations] (pp. 144–147). Nauka i Prosveshchenie.

  • Trudovoi kodeks Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Labor code of the Russian Federation]. Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 197-FZ. (2001, December 30). http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ips/?docbody=&nd=102074279

  • Valentova, M. (2019). The impact of parental leave policy on the intensity of labour-market participation of mothers: Do the number of children and pre-birth work engagement matter? Journal of European Social Policy, 29(3), 428–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928718776826

  • van Belle, J. (2016). Paternity and parental leave policies across the European Union (Research report No. RR-1666-EC). RAND. https://doi.org/10.7249/RR1666

  • Yavorsky, J., Kamp Dush, C., & Schoppe-Sullivan, S. (2015). The production of inequality: The gender division of labor across the transition to parenthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(3), 662–679. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12189

Published
2024-07-19
How to Cite
Bagirova, A., Blednova, N., & Neshataev, A. (2024). “Who if Not a Mother?”: Development of Parental Leave Design in Russia. Changing Societies & Personalities, 8(2), 334–350. doi:10.15826/csp.2024.8.2.277