Transition to fatherhood: how does economic crisis influence the use of parental and paternity leaves?

It is well known that periods of economic recession usually have an influence on family formation dynamics and transitions such as cohabitation, marriage and parenthood. Such an influence may be direct, by reducing couples’ incomes and their possibilities of childbearing, and indirect, by affecting state family policies. This paper aims to give a contribution to the observation of how macro level economical factors – labor market conditions, welfare policies and especially child care policies – influence couples’ transition to parenthood in the Western world, with a focus on Mediterranean Europe. A comparison is proposed between Spain and Italy, as Spain is a country that relies upon a labor market system and a welfare state regime comparable to the Italian ones. In Spain, quantitative studies on how economic crisis and uncertainty in the labor market impact on first time parenthood show that the decision to have a child is more and more postponed, if not abandoned at all, by contemporary Spanish couples. This is due to the increasing economical insecurity deriving from deregulation and transformations in the labor market subsequent to the economic recession. A recent research, though, argues that, while Spanish welfare policies and gender attitudes are changing towards a dual-earner-model norm, in Italy the male-breadwinner model and the reliance on the family for most of the care services are still predominant, both on the institutional level and on the individuals’ representations of family life. [Noguera, Golsch,& Steinhage 2002; Lapuerta, Baizan, & Gonzales 2011; Naldini & Jurado 2013; Sobotka, Skirbekk & Philipov 2011] In order to give a contribution to better define such a situation, this paper presents the results of an empirical research on how Italian dual-earner couples deal with the transition to parenthood and, especially, how external factors like the economic situation and family policies influence such a transition, with particular regard to decisions couples make about parental leaves and child care organisation. The qualitative data come from the project “Practices and policies around Parenthood” (http://www.unito.it/unitoWAR/page/dipartimenti8/D072/D072_progetti2?path=/BEA%20Repository/5048067). The research, based on a panel-type design, draws upon in-depth interviews on 17 dual-earner couples, most of them with a higher education level, living in Torino (North-Western Italy) and surroundings. All couples have been interviewed twice: the first time a few months before the birth of their first child, and the second time a year and a half after. Partners were interviewed separately. The aim of this paper is to observe whether economical factors’ influence on couples’ decisions change during the transition to parenthood, and whether the birth of the child makes a difference in partners’ representations of work-family balance and career expectation, given the macro institutional factors (labour market features and family policies). A special attention has been paid to the male side of the couple, thus focusing on the transition to fatherhood; within this perspective, practices of doing gender and, more broadly, features of the gender relations within the couple have been taken into account. The panel-type design of the research gives the unique chance to check what kind of influence the external economical have during the process of transition to parenthood. Furthermore, the comparison with the Spanish situation has constantly been taken into account, both on the side of the institutional level, by considering labour market characteristics, family policies and parental leaves regulation, and on the micro level of couples’ decisions over work-family balance and child care organization. Expected results would be, in the first place, that the economic recession and its consequences on the labour market and the family policies, together with a welfare regime embedded in an overall traditional gender system, influence a reinforcing of the male-breadwinner model in contemporary Italian couples’ transition to parenthood. This outcome would be reached, for instance, by indirectly hindering the taking of parental leaves by men, who usually have the highest income within the couple, and thus fostering the traditional assignment to women of most of the child care work. On this regard, a difference with Spain will be marked, since family policies have been committed, in the last decade, to equalitarian principles when it comes to work-family balance and child care services. Secondly, it is expected that the birth of the child itself would contribute to strengthen the traditional gender role system, accordingly to evidence found in other national and international research. The last expected result is that fathers who show, before the birth of the child, a strong commitment to the taking of the father’s role (fatherhood as a project), will enact alternative strategies to deal with requests both of flexibility on the work place and of child care work, for instance by reducing working hours, re-defining the job career and so on. Noguera C.S., Golsch K., Steinhage N., Increasing Uncertainty in the Spanish Labor Market and Entry Into Parenthood, in «Genus», vol 58, n.1, 2002, pp.77-119 Lapuerta I., Baizan P., Gonzales M.J., Individual and Institutional Constraints: An Analysis of Parental Leave Use and Duration in Spain, in «Population Research Policy Review», Vol 30, 2011, pp.185-210 Naldini M. & Jurado T., Family and Welfare State Reorientation in Spain and Inertia in Italy From a European Perspective, in «Population Review», vol. 52, n.1, 2013, pp 43-61 Sobotka T., Skirbekk V., Philipov D., Economic Recession and Fertility in the Developed World in «Population and Development Review», vol. 37, n. 2, 2011, pp.267-306