Parental leave policies among the of majority Fortune 500 companies are gender-biased, providing women with more parental leave than their male counterparts, and these policies likely impede gender equality in hiring and promotions, says a new study from Ball State University. The study is the first systematic examination of parental leave policies among major American corporations.
“Gendered Parental Leave Policies among Fortune 500 Companies” finds that 72% of Fortune 500 companies have paid parental leave policies but fathers are often considered secondary caregivers. Half of all paid parental leave policies provide at least twice as much time to women than men.
“These policies are clearly gender biased, and some are likely legally noncompliant, and could put employers at risk of a discrimination lawsuit,” says Richard Petts, a Ball State sociology professor who co-authored the paper with Gayle Kaufman, a sociology professor at Davidson College. “Overall, we see that companies largely view fathers as secondary parents who need less time to care for their new children.”
The study also found that only 17% of companies offer equal time to mothers and fathers. One third of all companies offer at least twice as much leave to mothers than to fathers, 10% of all companies have policies that provide substantially more leave to mothers and are likely legally noncompliant with discrimination laws, and 8% of companies reinforce gender stereotypes implicitly.
Petts notes that parental leave policies do more than provide parents an opportunity to care for their children. “These regulations also create norms about good motherhood and good fatherhood,” he says. “Better leave policies have the potential to increase men’s time in domestic work and child care as well as promote gender equality at work and home.
“Policies clearly labeled for fathers may be most effective in encouraging men’s use of parental leave. Fathers who take longer leaves are more engaged in both caretaking and developmental activities and provide more relationship support to their partners and better co-parenting quality than those who do not take leave.”
Petts — whose current research focuses on the patterns, predictors and consequences of paternity leave-taking in the U.S. and the potential benefits of paternity leave, and who has become one of the nation’s leading experts on parental leave with a focus on the role of fathers within families as well as the impact of parenthood on men’s lives — believes all employers should adopt gender equal parental leave policies.
Parental Leave Policies
| Classification | Percent of Companies |
| Gender Equal (equal periods of leave to mothers and fathers) | 17% |
| Gender Modified High (equal leave of six or more weeks with an additional six to eight weeks for mothers) | 12% |
| Gender Unequal Low (mothers offered two or more times longer leave than fathers but the difference is eight weeks or less) | 25% |
| Gender Unequal High (mothers offered more than three times longer leave than fathers) | 10% |
| Gender-Neutral Gendering (policies that offer both primary and secondary caregiver leave) | 8% |
| No policy | 18% |
Type of Parent Specified in Leave Policies
| Mothers only | 11.06% |
| Fathers only | 0.00% |
| Adoptive Parents only | 26.11% |
| Mothers and Fathers | 6.19% |
| Mothers and Adoptive Parents | 50.44% |
| Fathers and Adoptive Parents | 0.00% |
| Mothers, Fathers and Adoptive Parents | 6.19% |
| Note: The companies with policies that specified mothers, fathers and adoptive parents had different periods of leave for each. Adoptive parents are given longer leaves than fathers in all but one instance (average time off for adoptive parents in these companies is 6.21 weeks; average time off for fathers in these companies is 4.64 weeks). | |
Industry Sector Comparison
| Parental leave policies are most prevalent in: | Percent |
| Technology | 91% |
| Communication | 78% |
| Financial | 78% |
| Parental leave policies are least prevalent in: | |
| Materials | 53% |
| Industrial | 61% |
| Energy | 65% |
Source: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2020.1804324
Methodology
The Fortune 500 list from 2018 is used for this study as this was the most recent list available when data collection began. The researchers were able to obtain information on policies from, or communicate with, 389 of the Fortune 500 companies (78%); 111 companies did not respond to phone calls and emails. However, 36 of the companies refused to provide any information about their parental leave policies. Thus, the final sample focuses on parental leave policies at 353 of the 2018 Fortune 500 companies (71%).
Founded in 1918 and located in Muncie, Ball State University is one of Indiana’s premier universities and an economic driver for the state.
