Paternal Part-Time Employment and Fathers' Long-Term Involvement in Child Care and Housework

[Objective:] This study examines whether paternal part-time employment is related to greater involvement by fathers in child care and housework, both while fathers are working part-time and after they return to full-time employment. [Background:] The study draws on four strands of theory—time availability, bargaining, gender ideology, and gender construction. It studies couples' division of labor in Germany, where policies increasingly support a dual-earner, dual-carer model. [Method:] The study uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1991 to 2015 on employed adult fathers living together with at least one child younger than age 17 and the mother. The analytic sample comprises 51,230 observations on 8,915 fathers. Fixed effects regression techniques are used to estimate the effect of (previous) part-time employment on fathers' child-care hours, housework hours, and share of child care and housework. [Results:] Fathers did more child care and housework while they worked part time. Yet, most fathers reverted to previous levels of involvement after returning to full-time work. The only exception was fathers with partners in full-time employment, who spent more time doing child care and took on a greater share of housework after part-time employment than before. [Conclusion:] The findings are largely consistent with the time availability perspective, although the results for fathers with full-time employed partners indicate that the relative resources and gender ideology perspectives have some explanatory power as well

What Happens after the 'Daddy Months'? Fathers' Involvement in Paid Work, Childcare, and Housework after Taking Parental Leave in Germany

The German parental leave reform of 2007 created a new incentive for men to take parental leave by introducing ‘daddy months’: 2 months of well-remunerated leave exclusively reserved for fathers. Against the backdrop of the reform, this study examines how fathers’ uptake of parental leave affects the amount of time they spend on paid work, housework, and childcare after the leave has ended. It investigates whether the effect of parental leave differs by the length of leave taken and by whether fathers took the leave alone or at the same time as their partners. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2006 to 2012 and Families in Germany from 2010 to 2012, the results of fixed-effects regressions indicate that fathers who took parental leave subsequently reallocated their time from work to home. They reduced their working hours and increased their involvement in childcare even after short and joint periods of parental leave. But only those who took >2 months of leave or were on leave while their partner was working subsequently increased their participation in housework. Hence, fathers increased their involvement in childcare already after short leaves, whereas enhanced gender equality in couples’ division of labour especially emerged after longer or solo leaves

The Long Arm of an Unsupportive Work-Family Culture in Work Organizations: Crossover to the Partner's Work-Family Balance Satisfaction in Dual-Earner Couples

This study analyzes how an unsupportive organizational work-family culture experienced by one employed parent at work can cross over to their partner and reduce the latter's satisfaction with work-family balance (WFBS). Workplace cultures that are structured around the "ideal worker" norm have enormous and often detrimental impacts on parents' abilities to manage work and family roles. Drawing on crossover theory, we argue that these kinds of unsupportive work-family cultures have adverse consequences, not only for working parents but also for their partners. We hypothesize that if one partner experiences an unsupportive work-family culture, they can provide less instrumental and emotional support to the other partner, which reduces the other partner's WFBS. We use a unique dataset of 556 dual-earner couples with young children surveyed in Germany in 2015 and perform multivariate regression analysis and structural equation modelling. We find robust evidence that mothers were less satisfied with work-family balance if fathers reported an unsupportive work-family culture in their organization. There was only weak evidence, however, for crossover between an unsupportive work-family culture at the mother’s workplace and the father's WFBS. Mediation analysis suggests that these associations were transmitted in part through reduced emotional support, whereas instrumental support did not appear to play a role. The findings lend support to the argument that an unsupportive work-family culture in one parent's workplace reduces the emotional support they provide to their partner, which reduces the partner's WFBS

Family policies and fathers' working hours: cross-national differences in the paternal labour supply

Despite extensive research on the effect of family policies on the labour supply of mothers, little is known about how these policies affect fathers’ labour market outcomes. Using European panel data (EU-SILC) from 2003 to 2009 and multi-level models, this study analyses the effect of family policies on fathers’ working hours. The results indicate that fathers work less than childless men if they live in countries that offer well paid, non-transferable parental leave for fathers, short parental leave for mothers and generous family allowances. The effects, however, are strongly contingent on fathers’ educational levels. Whereas short maternal leaves are associated with shorter working hours among highly educated fathers, generous family allowances and father friendly parental leave schemes reduce the working hours of less educated fathers

Parenthood, child care, and nonstandard work schedules in Europe

An increasing proportion of the European labor force works in the evening, at night or on weekends. Because nonstandard work schedules are associated with a number of negative outcomes for families and children, parents may seek to avoid such schedules. However, for parents with insufficient access to formal child care, working nonstandard hours or days may be an adaptive strategy used to manage child-care needs. It enables ‘split-shift’ parenting, where parents work alternate schedules, allowing one of the two to be at home looking after the children. This study examines the prevalence of nonstandard work schedules among parents and nonparents in 22 European countries. Specifically, we ask whether the provision of formal child care influences the extent to which parents of preschool-aged children work nonstandard schedules. Using data from the European Social Survey and multilevel models, we find evidence that the availability of formal child care reduces nonstandard work among parents. This indicates that access to formal child care enables parents to work standard schedules. To the extent that nonstandard work schedules are negatively associated with child well-being, access to formal child care protects children from the adverse effects of their parents’ evening and night work

Caregiving and being employed: What changed for women and men in the Covid-19 Pandemic?

This chapter examines the situation of working-age carer-givers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The following questions are examined: Did the share of employed and non-employed people involved in unpaid care change during the Covid-19 pandemic? How did care-givers' involvement in paid work develop during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic? How high was the share of employed care-givers who made use of statutory leave options? And how did the care-giver burden of employed and non-employed care-givers develop during the pandemic? While answering these questions, gender differences are also considered

Национальные особенности становления социальной ответственности бизнеса в Украине

Bidirectional low temperature networks are a novel concept that promises more efficient heating and cooling of buildings. Early research shows theoretical benefits in terms of exergy efficiency over other technologies. Pilot projects indicate that the concept delivers good performance if heating and cooling demands are diverse. However, the operation of these networks is not yet optimized and there is no quantification of the benefits over other technologies in various scenarios. Moreover, there is a lack of understanding of how to integrate and control multiple distributed heat and cold sources in such networks. Therefore, this paper develops a control concept based on a temperature set point optimization and agent-based control which allows the modular integration of an arbitrary number of sources and consumers. Afterwards, the concept is applied to two scenarios representing neighborhoods in San Francisco and Cologne with different heating and cooling demands and boundary conditions. The performance of the system is then compared to other state-of-the-art heating and cooling solutions using dynamic simulations with Modelica. The results show that bidirectional low temperature networks without optimization produce 26% less emissions in the San Francisco scenario and 63% in the Cologne scenario in comparison to the other heating and cooling solutions. Savings of energy costs are 46% and 27%, and reductions of primary energy consumption 52% and 72%, respectively. The presented operation optimization leads to electricity use reductions of 13% and 41% when compared to networks with free-floating temperature control and the results indicate further potential for improvement. The study demonstrates the advantage of low temperature networks in different situations and introduces a control concept that is extendable for real implementation

Konzepte und Effekte außerschulischer Lernorte in der technischen Bildung

Der Sammelband umfasst Beiträge zu empirischen Wirkungsanalysen außerschulischer Lernorte in der Technikbildung. Die vorgestellten Analysen einzelner Projekte beschreiben den Einfluss auf Laufbahnentscheidungen sowie auf die Einstellung der Schülerinnen und Schüler zur Technik. Beitragsthemen sind unter anderem die Untersuchung bestehender Lernorte in Museen, die Einbindung in Schulcurricula, der Einfluss des Technikunterrichts auf die Berufswahl von Mädchen sowie die Vorstellungen, die Schülerinnen und Schüler vom Ingenieurberuf haben. Überlegungen zur Professionalisierung von Lehrenden an Schulen aus hochschuldidaktischer Sicht schließen den Sammelband ab.The anthology comprises articles on empirical impact analyses of extracurricular learning environments in the field of technical education. The described analyses of individual projects depict implications on career decisions as well as on the students' attitude towards technology. Among other topics, the included papers focus on the examination of existing learning environments in museums, the integration into school curricula, the implications of technical education on girls' career choices, as well as the perceptions of the engineering profession prevailing among students. The anthology closes with thoughts on the professionalisation of school teachers from the point of view of higher education didactics

Konsequenzen aus dem Wandel berufsförmiger Facharbeit für die Qualifizierung von Facharbeitern und Gesellen in handwerklichen Baugewerken im europäischen Vergleich

In der vorliegenden Publikation werden die Auswirkungen des gegenwärtigen Strukturwandels in der europäischen Bauwirtschaft auf die Qualifikationsanforderungen an die Arbeitskräfte dieses Sektors untersucht. Der Autor entwickelt einen Lösungsansatz, der inhaltlich und strukturell die Defizite beruflicher Bildung auf dem Gebiet der Instandsetzung und Instandhaltung von Bauwerken ausgleicht

Grandchild care during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Before vaccinations against the Corona virus were widely available for at-risk groups, older people were a particular focus of infection protection. Due to the higher risk of severe disease, contact between grandchildren and grandparents was discouraged. At the same time, families required extra support due to closed schools and day-care centres. This chapter examines how the proportion of grandparents caring for their grandchildren - and the amount of time spent caring for them - changed during the pandemic