How Mark Zuckerberg’s Example Helps Fight Stigma of Family Leave

There’s growing political support for some sort of paid family leave, and it’s clear that many mothers use it when it’s offered. What has been less clear is whether it would make a difference for fathers. A new study shows how it would.

In California, one of three states that offer paid leave for both parents, new fathers have been 46 percent more likely to take leave since the law went into effect in 2004 — especially first-time fathers and those who work at jobs where it’s more common. Still, even in a state that pays for parents to take leave, the study showed that it is much less common among fathers than mothers.

Advocates of parental leave say they hope prominent examples like Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and chief executive, who just started a two-month paternity leave after the birth of his daughter, Max, will change attitudes. “Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families,” he wrote on Facebook last month.

The results of California’s program — the first to offer government-supported paternity leave in the United States — show how policies can help families adapt to the fact that most parents now work, and men report as much stress over work-family balance as women do.

Though men still face a strong stigma when they take leave, paid leave policies seem to help alleviate that. And when men spend time caring for children early on, they are more involved for years to come, studies show, while women are able to work more hours and earn higher wages.

“It wasn’t clear until now if this would have an effect on men, too, because of gender stereotypes and norms,” said Maya Rossin-Slater, an economist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an author of the study. “It’s important to know that fathers do have a demand for leave, and when it’s offered, they do respond.”

The researchers used state and federal data to study leave-taking among California fathers who live with their children. They found that paid leave had evened out the division of labor in California families: Solo leave-taking by fathers (when mothers are back at work) increased 50 percent. Leave-taking at the same time as mothers increased 28 percent.

Fathers of sons were twice as likely to take leave as fathers of daughters, though it is unclear why. There is other evidence that parents spend more time with children of their gender. California mothers were slightly more likely to take leave with daughters than with sons, and single mothers tend to invest more in daughters.

The economists also found that the increase in men’s leave-taking was almost entirely driven by first-time fathers. Mothers, meanwhile, were equally likely to take leave with additional children.

The researchers speculated that first-time fathers might be responding to the sharp learning curve with a first baby, or else they start families with lofty ideals for fatherhood but later revert to more traditional gender roles, perhaps because of employer pressure.

Men who worked in jobs with a large share of female workers were also more likely to take leave. There is most likely less stigma about men taking time off at jobs where many women have already done so.

“These are places where norms are such that when a male or female worker has a child, they are more likely to take leave,” said Ms. Rossin-Slater, who wrote the paper with Jane Waldfogel and Ann Bartel of Columbia University, Christopher Ruhm of the University of Virginia and Jenna Stearns of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Previous studies have shown that peer influence — as when co-workers, brothers or bosses take paternity leave — has a strong effect on men’s leave-taking. That is one reason Mr. Zuckerberg publicly announced his leave. He also promotes leave by explicitly saying in meetings that people are on parental leave instead of just out of the office. Facebook offers four months of paid parental leave, but while most women there take all the time, men take less.

Paternity leave seems to set lifelong patterns for families. In another study co-written by Ms. Waldfogel of 10,000 children in the United States, researchers found that fathers who took two or more weeks of leave were significantly more likely to do child-care tasks like diapering and feeding later on. Fathers who took less than two weeks were no more likely to be involved than those who took none at all.

Still, Mr. Zuckerberg is the exception. Although 89 percent of fathers took some time off after their baby’s birth, almost two-thirds took one week or less, according to research by Ms. Waldfogel.

In California, few fathers take the full six weeks. Again, stigma associated with leave plays a role. Social scientists have found that men pay a price in earnings and promotions when they do not seem wholly committed to work. There is also evidence that many people simply do not know the leave is available.

Even countries with generous paternity leaves have had trouble getting fathers to take them. In places like Sweden and Canada, policy makers have enforced so-called daddy quotas to encourage more men to take leave.