Fathers on Leave Alone in Portugal: Lived Experiences and Impact of Forerunner Fathers

In Portugal there has been a continuing enhancement of fathers’ leave entitlements over the last two decades. Policy goals have underlined the improvement of workfamily balance for both parents and the well-being of the child as well as the promotion of gender equality, in particular through the increased involvement of fathers in child care. The last reform of the parental leave system, in 2009, addressed all these objectives but put a strong emphasis on fatherhood and gender equality by increasing paternity leave to 4 weeks of fully-compensated leave (taken with the mother after childbirth) and, more importantly, by introducing a 1-month ‘bonus scheme’ in case of gender sharing of leave (Wall and Leitão 2014 ).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio