Abstract:
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To
identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute
to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30years old) planning to
have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that
varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take
longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women’s political representation partially
explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically
larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to
both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by
cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave
and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with
leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes.
Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster
gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.
