Willingness of Spanish Men to Take Maternity Leave. Do Firms’ Strategies for Reconciliation Impinge on This?

摘要

The main idea proposed in this article is that organizations which provide facilities for reconciling working and family life among their employees—family-friendly companies—not only make it easier for mothers to combine work and family, but also, for fathers. Consequently, working in this type of environment may stimulate the father’s involvement in childcare. For the case of Spain, based on the sample of 3,094 males originating in the macro Survey of Quality of Life in the Workplace of 2007, an indicator of a family-friendly company was constructed. From this indicator, as well as other socio-labor variables that appear in the survey, a descriptive statistical analysis and a multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried in order to know, first, if working in this type of workplace exerts a positive effect on male workers’ willingness to take maternity leave (in the event of having a child); and, second, what is the effect on this willingness of some other relevant socio-labor variables (age, university studies, non-working partner, working in public administration and high net monthly earnings). Findings indicated that age, having a non-working partner and being high income men are factors reducing male workers’ inclination to ask for leave. And, conversely, working in family-friendly companies makes it more likely that males will take leave.