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BABIES AND WORK:

ASTUDYor EMPLOYEDPARENTSor INFANTS

C DOROTHY B. ROBBINS, B.A. ,B.S.W .

A Thesis submitted to the School or Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work

Department of Sooial Work Memorial universityor Newfoundland

November,19'0

st.John's Newfoundland

1.1

The authorhasgranted anIrrevocablenon·

exclusiveAcenceeJlowb1g theNationelUbtaly ofCanadatoreproduoe,loon.disbiluteorsea copies ofhlslher thesisbyany meansandin any foonorfonnat,making ttlisthesisavalIable to interested persons." ..

The auttlQ(retainsownershipofthe~t in hislher thesis.Neither thethesisnor substantiaJ extracts fromitmaybeprintedor otherwise reproducedwithouthislhet'per- mission.

L'auteur 8aooon:itlunelicenceimh'ocabktet non exclusivepemtettant •taBibGotMque nationale du Canadade reprodulre, pr6tet".

distribuef au vendredescopiesde68thke dequejque maniere et sousqueCquefonne Que ce soit pour mettre des exemplalresde cettethesea Ia disposition des personnes loteressees.

l'auteur ccoseveIa proprietedudroitd'auleur quiprotege sathese.Nlla.

these

ISBN 0-315-6~294.-2

List of Key Words

Parental Leave Maternity Leave paternity Leave Infant Care child Care Household Labour Working Parents

Work and Family Responsibilities Two-income Families

Family Policy

i i

Abstract

This st udy examinedtheabsencefr om paidwork for chil d bi rthand in f a n t ca rebymothers and father s in thi r t y- f i v e , dual-e arning famili e s . Re s po ndents were als o as ke d about their divis ion of child ca r e and household task s; how satisfiedtheywe r ewi thcurrentinfantca re ar ra ngeme ntsand whatkindofsys t em of pa r entalleave andbenefits shou l dbe available throughpUblic polic y.

The sa mpl e was recruited through obst e t r ical care hos p i tal s and a fami ly practi c e phys i c i a n s' cl i n ic in St.

Jo hn's. All respondents were in the wo r kfo r c e at the ti me the y were re c ru i ted forthe samp le. Moth e r s and fath e r s were inte rv iewed by tel ephone , using a resea r ch instrument constru c tedfor thi s study , 5 to12 monthsaftertheir infant was born.

Al l but one ofthe mothersha dre tu r ne d to work at the time of the inte rv i e w and al l the fathers were in the work f orc e . Al l mothers took time off from work for child birth and infant care. Mos t took 17 we ek s, the time that corresponde d to the 15 we ek s be nefit pe riod through unemployment In s ura n c e , pl us the requi red 2 week waiting pe r i od, that was availab l ewhen theresearch was cond ucted . Most fat he rs , not be ing elig i b le for patern ity leave or benefits , took only a few da ys off around the time of ch ild birth.

Approximat e lyone-quarte r of thesamp le were egalitarian with respect to the di v i sio n of child care and hou s e hold ta s ks. One-quarte r were quite trad i t i o nal , withthe mother beingre sponsiblefor these ta sks mostof the time , and the l:e mainder weresemi- t raditiona l with the fathers"helpingout"

but not pri mari lyrespons ibleforthesetas ks.

The majorit y of the samp le fa voured a longerperi od of paid ma ternity le avetha n was av ailable tothem andape r i od of pai d paternityleav e. The majority of re s p ondent s agreed wit h the conc e p t of mothers andfat he rssha r i nga peri od of parentalle ave. In22%of the sample boththemo thersand the fat he rssaid the y wouldhav eshared thele av e , had tha t option be e n available to the m. Thi r ty- t hree per- c ent of the ega lita rian families would have shared paren ta l le a ve , compa r ed toonly10% of thetra d i tional familie s.

iii

Acknowledgements

The assistanceof Dr. V. Thompson and Dr. L. Be ll a,my supervisors overthe course of the development of the research proposal, thedata collectionphaseand the writingof thi s thesis, is gratefullyacknowledged.

I also thank the administrationand obstetricalnursing st a f f at theGraceHospital andst.Clare'sMercyHospital and Dr. M.Godwin and the other physiciansat the Family Practic e Unit, Memorial university, for their cooperation in allowi ng me to recruittheir patientsfor my sample.

Thanksto the respondentswho tooktim!)from their very bUSyschedulesto be interviewed.

Asp e c i a l thank you toMadonna Connors forma nyhours of wo r d proce ssing , BethLacey for assistancewiththe production of the graph s and my emplo ye r, The Women's Policy Off i c e , GovernmentofNe wf ound l a nd and Labradorfo r encouragementin pursuing research in the area of work and family responsibilities.

Finally,I thankmy familyfor their suppo r tand patience during the periodwhen I ca r r i e d out this res earch andwrote thisthesis.

Tableof Contents ListofTa b l e s

List of Figures Chapter 1.

INTRODUCTION •••• • • ••••••• • •••••• • •• • • ••• • • ••••• •••• • Research questions.• . •••. •••.•.•.•. .• . ••..••••• •••....

Rationa lefor the study•.••. .•.•••••• • •.• ••• • • • •.• .•••

Current maternity/parentalle a v e and benefits availableto Canadian and Newfoundland families•••.•••8 In c i de n c e of maternity leave/benefitsin

Newfoundland and Canada... . ... ... . . ...11

Summary ••• •• • • •• •••••••• •••• •••••••••• •••• ••• • ••• ••• 12 Chapter 2. REVIEWOFTHE LITERATURE Maternity and paternityleave and benefits.. .• 14

Division ofhous eh oldlabo u r... ... ... ... .... ... 21

Marital satisfactionand distributionof familywork.... .. .. ... .. . . .. 29

Gender equity issues 31 SUllllllary of relevant l~t e r a ture. .. ............... .... 33

Chapter 3. METHODOLOGY propositions... ... . . ... ... ... .. 3S The populationand sample.. . ... ... .. . ... . 36

The rese a r c hins t rume nt .. .. .. ... . .. . ... 39

Data collection.... ... . ... . . ... . . 41

Research ethics•• . . ••.. . .• •. .•••••~................ . 42

Chapter4. DESCRIPTION OF THESAMPLE Demographic data . ... . ... ... ... . .. .. ... ... . . 44

Child birth... .. . . . ... ... ... . ... . . .. .. 51

Chapter 5. EMPLOYMENTAND LEAVE... . . ... . . . ... . . . .. ... 54 Child care arrangements... ... ... . .... . 57

Leave/benefitsavailable to thesa mple... .... ... 58

Chapter 6. DIV ISIONOFCHILDCARE ANDHOUSHOLDTASKS. . ... .... 63

How tasks were accomplished. . ... ... . . 64

Equalitarian and traditional families.... ... . . . 67 iv

Mother-father differences/similarities ••.• .• . .. .... 69

OVe ral l hous eholt1res pon s ibility.. .. . .. . ... ... . .. ... 71

Sa tisf ac tionwi t h parenthood. ... . ... ... . .. .. 72

Satisfactionwith time forch ild/c h ildren . ... .. .. ... 73

Chapter7. VI EWS ABOUT PARENTAL LEAVE. . . . ... . . .. ... . ... . . . 75

Maternity/paternity lea ve.... ... . ... ... ... . . ... 75

Maternity/paternitybenefits... ... . .. . . .. . .... . 77

sh a r i ng of leave .. . . .... .. .... .... . . . ... .. . ... 82

summary ofvi e ws aboutma t e r ni ty/ paternityleav e /benefit s ... . . .. ... . ... . . 83

As so ciationbetween at ti t ud es towardsleave andfamilysc ore on divi s i onof hous eh old and childca retasks... ... . . . . ... . . .. 83

Chapte r 8. CONCLUSI ONSANDRECOMMENDATIONS. . . . ... ... 87

pr oposition s re - visit e d... .... ... .... ... ... .. 88

Sutll1lla ry ofsi gnif icant issuesraised in the st udy and recommendati on s . ... .. ... ... . 91

The high costof childbearing. .. .... ... ... .... 91

Employer' s at t i t Udes andfathers responseto parentallea ve. . .... . .... . ... ... ... 92

Parental ins u ranc e vs une mployme ntins uran ce... . 94

Legis l at ionon maternity/paternitylea ve .•... ... . 96

Conclusion... ... ... ... .... ... 97

Refe re nces.•.••••••.•••.•... .• .•.•.• .... . .. .... ... .. 100

App e nd ix I.... ... ... . .. ... .... ... .•.•.. 10 5 AppendixII.• ••.• .• ...•. •.• . • .•. •.. .•••• •••••••••.•. 107

AppendixIII... .. .. ... ... .. .. ... ... 108

App e nd ix IV... . . .. .. .. . . ... ... ... .. 128

vi

Li s t of Tables

Table 5.1

Reported Wo r k Schedulesand Requirements••••••• ••••••••S6 Table 6.1

Division of householdta s k s•... .. . ..•.. • •...•.. . • . .. .65 Table6.2

Division ofchi l d careta s ks.. . ... ... ... . . .. .. 66 Table7. 1

Association bet....eenattitudetowards le a v ean d sharingof household and

childcare tasks •• • •••••• •• •. . .•.•••.•. .• •. ..•..• • ...• •• .•.84

List of Figures

Figure 4.1

Educationalntta i nme nt of the sample. ... 46 Figure4.2

Incomeof the sample.... ... . ... ... ... 49 Figure5. 1

Ava il a b i l i t y of maternityleav e .... ... ... 59 Figure 5.2

Availabilityof leav eforfath e rs at

childbirth .•.•• ..•...••.. •.•••..• .. ... . . .. • •61 Figure 6.1

Distributionof family scoreson division of labour •.•.•• •.•• •••• • ••.••.•••. .•••••.• 70 Figure 7.1

Attitudes towards parental leave.. ... 76 Figure7.2

Whosho uld pay fo r mater ni ty bene fits ? .. . . 79 Figure7.3

Who shouldpay for pate r n itybenefits?... 81 vii

Chapter 1

INTRODtJCTrON

During the la s t two decades major cha nges have taken placeinCa na d i a n society. One cha nge whichis most evident isthe qrowth inwomen's parti c i p a t i o n in thela bo ur fo r c e. In October 198 6,3.5 mi llionmarr iedwomen were inthela b our force, a tenfold incre a s e from1951 (Statistics Can ada ,198 6 ). The most dramatic inc reasehas been in the participationof women withyoung-child ren. In 1975 only35%of marriedwomen with pre-schoo l ers wo rked outside the home; by 198 3 this figurehad grown to 51.5% (sta tis t icsCanada, 198 5 ).

Women in Newfoundland, like wo me n in the rest of the country, have been entering the la bour force in re co r d numbers. In 197 6, there were 58,0 00 women in the labour force. By198 6 thi s figure ha d inc reased to 91,000 , an increaseof56. 9%(sta t ist ics Can ad a, 1976 and 198 6) . Eleven thou s a nd five hundredandeig hty(11,58 0 ) women in thela b o ur fo r c e have childre nunde r the age ofsix (Stat ist icsCanada, 198 6)•

Li fe - timepa t ternsof work for womenare also chang ing.

Many wome n do no t drop out of th e la b o ur force to rear childr en and take only a short pe riod ofmater n i ty lea v e around th etime of child bi r t h. In lightof the s e ra d ical

cha nges inwomen 's work patterns, ma nyco untries hav e hadto re-examine their mate r n i t y le a v e and child ca r e policies . With women's growingcontribution tothe forma lec cncay , the r e is somerecognitio nof thene e d to sharefamily and household ta s ks. However, these arestil l pri marily handledby women.

This recogn ition is relat e d to concerns about the impactof women'sdouble work loa d, and the fact thateconomicequality for women in thela bour force is closely li nke dto equalityin family responsibilities.

The birth of a new family membe r is one of the most cri tica l eventsinfamilylife. Itis alsoone of the periods when conflictsbetween workand family re s pon s i b il i t i e s are most evident in two-ea rne r families. This st udy examined parents' infant ca re re s p o ns i b il i t i e s and the effect of our currentsystem of maternity leave/benefitson decisions about how these responsibilitiesare.met.

Research que stions

Thisaeudy examined the absencefrom paid workby both parents (i nclud i ng formal parenta l le a v e , annual leave, sick le a v e or informal ti meoff ) rela t e dtoch ildbirthand infant care,in two-e a r n e r fami lies. The respondentswereasked bov th e y divided child care and ho us e hold ta s ks. and their responses were comparedwith the i r atti tudesabout pare ntal

leave. Mothersand fatherswere askedhow satisfied they ar e withthe i r cu r rent arrangements and wh a t kind of systemof parenta l lea v e/ben e fit sthe y fel t should be"a v a ila b l eth r o ugh public policy.

Rationalefo r thestud y

The questions explored in this study have impo rta nt implicationsfor pol icydevelopmentin Canada. They relateto two policygoa l s. Theseare economic equality for women and a mor e equal balance for workersbetweentheir employmentand family responsibilities. The federal and provincial governmentshave articulateda commitmentto economicequality for women (Fi r s t Ministers' Conference, 198 5). Si milarly , both levels of governmenthave recognizedthatcha n ges in the labour for c e require adj u s tme nt s in soci al policies and programs to assist workers with family responsibilities. (FirstMi ni s t ers' conference, 1987)

1nCanada, the'cwo-e a r ne r , two-parentfamily is 110101the norm. only16%of t;oIo-parentfamilies have onlycnc of the partner in the paid lab our force (statistics canada , 19 8 5 ) • Most social pol icies in Canadawere developedto me e t the needs of the moretradi tionalone-earner , two-p a r e nt family. Consequent lythe needs of single-parent and two- earner families are not being met. This is most evident in

our lackofadequa tech ild careservices andour fragmented and inadequat e sys tem of leave and bene fit s for child birth andinfa nt care.

Job protected le a v e , including sen iority and fring e bene f i ts at the ti me of childbir th,and theprovisi o nof a cas h benef i t to cover all or a por t ionof foregonewa ge s at that time, has been made availableinseve ra l ind us t r i a li ze d countries, includingCanada (ILO,19 85). Thesepolic i esha v e developedprima r i lyto ensure thatwome n do not continueto suffer a majordi s advan t age inth e paid labou r forcedue to thei rchildbearingresponsibilit ies . The policiesha v e been directed almost entirely to wards women. The most nota bl e excep tion is Sweden,whichal lows both parents to sharejob- protected , paid le a ve fromwork for the firstnine months of a chi ld 's life (Kamerrnan,198 0 ) .

sincethe initial introductionof ma ternity le ave inthe

1960'Sand1970^{1 s ,}some countrieshave expanded the period of

le av e around child birt h to ta ke in to account child developmen t needs. Wi ththe expansion from a materna l policy to includechild de velo pment , it isha rdto argue that fathers shou ld not be eligible to share the latter portion of the le av e (Kamerman, 1983 ) .

Thereisalso a growingre cogni tionthatgender equ a lity in the workplace ';~il l not occ ur until there is a more equi tabl esha ri n gof familyrespon sibilities. Un less mentak e anequa l sha re of familyrespons i b ilit i e s at home ,wo men wil l continue to carry the doubleburde nof contributing to the family economy and bei ng re s ponsibl e formost of the child care and household ta s ks . As well as be ing stressed by overw ork , women wi ll conti nue to be dis ad vantag ed in the labo ur mar ketbecause of their co n fl ict ingwor k and fa mil y res po nsibi lities. If fa milyrelate d leaves and benefits are avai l able only to women ,emp loye rs maybe re luctant tohire and advan c e women and conversel y , me n wil l not ha ve the oppo r tunity to share fa milyre spons i bil i t i e s equ all y. This situa tionwill continu e to contribute to thelowe r economic status of women, unle s s legi slation and empl oyme nt policies that will assist al l wor ke rs wit h their dua l rol e s are insti t ue d . Conseque nt ly, harmo n izing work and fami ly responsibilities, sothat nei therpare nts nor chi ldren suf f er beca u s e of conf l ict betwee n wo r k and family , has be c ome a st a t ed PUblic policy goa l(Fi r st Mini sters Con fe rence , 1987) .

Although pare ntal lea ve and the sha ri ng of inf a nt care betwee nmo t hersand fathershavenotbe enthe SUbjectsofmuch at t e nt i on inthe sooi a l wor k li terature, paren talle ave and infant ca reobvi o usl yhave important imp lica tio ns for social wor k pract ice. Fat he rs have been al mo s t abs ent fromth e

social work.liter atu r e . Socia l wo r k. in qe ne r a l . and. child welfar e in pa rticular, ha v ebeen focused on maternal Social work. theory and practicehave beenhe av ily influenced by Bowlby's Maternol Core i'Jnd Child Mental Heal th (1952), Levy'sMa t e r n a l OVerprotection (1947) and s1.Har scholarly tra cts , inwh i ch thecentralityofth e lIOtherisdi s cu s s e d1n detail and the !ather 's role is vir tual l y ig nore d.

Discussions of fat he rsasnurturers or familiessharingchild caretasks havebeen rare (Wa lins, 19 8 3) .

In a review of all the issues of five major soc i al work journa ls published betwee n 1961 and 1987, Greif and Ba!le y(1990) found only 21arti clesonfathers,while mothe rs featuredmuchmor e frequen tly. Fathe rswerenoted forthe i r abser,ces.theirab u s e and lack of financial support to their families. No articlesfocused on the father in a two-parent family (exceptreg a rd i ng a father's ince s t u ous relationship with his child)alt hough thema j o r ity of fathersin the U.S.

and Ca nadaarelivingwith child renwho are under age18 . The resear c hersconc ludedthat i tth e social work professionis to re ma l n corrcnittedtosupportingfaMilies,thanre s e arc he r s and pract i t ionersmust study the changingpatternsof mothe r hood andfat her hood.

The la st three decades ha ve been a pe riod of rap i d economic , pol i ti cal and socia l change . TherehavebeenlIlany

pressures on parents and these pressures are likely to continue. Social workers in practice, in research and in administrationneed to learn more about how working parents adapt and how to encourage positive, nurturing roles for fathers and mothers. Social policy developers need to be aware of the new economic and social roles of both parents in order to initiate social policies that support working parents.

A few references to shared child care were found in the social work literature. For example, Winborn (1983) uses case examples from her practice to il l u s t r a t e that inE'·titutional supports and flexibility in programs and policies are needed, so that women and men can integrate both parental and occupational roles.

Other social work literatureaddressesnew parenthood as a time of transition that can be a posLt.Lve timefor building family relationships. Aronoff and Lewis (1979) point out that a great deal of preventative work with both mothers and fathers can be done around the time a child is born. This time when family dynamics are in a state of flUX, when nev skillshave to be learned quiCkly and a new lifestyle has to be worked out, is an optimal point for parent learning programs.

CUrnDt ••terDity/parental leave/benefit. available to Ca nadi an aDd Nevfoun4land fu ilie.

InCanada, the right to time of f from work for ch ild birthwi th nothreatto job security, ispro vided by labour standa rds leg i sl ation . Under the Canada Labour code and similarprovisionsundertheNe....foundlandLabo u rSt a nda rdsAct (1977), employe d....omenareenti tledto aspeci fiedperiod of leave, related tochi l d birth , prov ided theyhaveworked tor the same emp loy erlong enough tobe eligible.

Th e Canada Labour Cod e applies toemp l o yers and the ir employ e eswhocomeun der flldera l jurisdi cti on (e.g. fe deral public servant s, federal cr own agencies and interp rovincial employerssuc h as those inthe banking, transpo rtation and tel ec ommun i c a tions indust ries ). In 1985 the canada Labour Code was amended.to provide for a17 weekun pa i d lIlaternlty leave to al l femaleemployees,and anadditional24 weeksof unpa i dle av e , availab le to any emp loyee, male or female , who hasthe care and custodyof a ne wbornchild, provided they have been empl oyed with the sa me emp loyer for the pas t 6 mont hs. The 24 we eks of le ave is ava ila b le to naturd fathers, adopting parents and natural mothers who have complete dthe matern ity le a veof17 week s. Pare ntsmay choose toshare this unpa id le a ve , i fthe ybothworkfor employers regulated bythe Canada Labour Cod e . Uponreturnto work ,the

employeemustbere-inst at e d tohisor herfo rme r positionor one equivalenttoit and begivenwage increments, be nefits and seniority accrued during the period ofle a v e (TaskForce on child Care, 1985).

The Newfoundland Labour st a nda r ds Act applies to all emp l oye r sandemp loyees inth epr ovincewhodo not fallwith in the jurisd iction of the federal government. Li ke mos t pr ov i nc i a l labourcodes , it only allows naturalmothersand adopti ve parents totake unpaidlea veforup to17 weeks. In 1985onlythreeprovinces (Manitoba, Sas k a t che wa nand Que be c ) required empl oy e r s to allo.... natural fathers unpaid leav e around thetime of birthofa child. Manit obaallowednatural fathers6 wee ks inthe3 mo nt h period surr oundingthe bi rth, or immediately followi ng the expiration of the mother ' s ma t e r ni tyle ave. Saskatchewanallowednatural fathers 6we ek s in the tnree month period surrounding the birth. Que bec allowed fathers 2days leave on thebirthof a child (Ta s k Force onchildCare, 1985 ).

Maternity benefits (paymC!nt dur i ng time off from employmentdue to pregnancy , childbirth and/or infant care) are currently available through the Unemployment Insuranc e Program. At the tim e data was col le cted fo r this stUdy natural mothers and adoptiveparents of either sex, cou l d receiveup to 15 weeks of benefits,provided they hadat least

1.

20 weeks of insurable eaJ.·n ingsbefore theirclaim was tiled.

The benefits were payableafter a 2 week waiting periodfrom the time unpaid leave from work commenced. The benefit was 60\ of the claimant'sregular wage, up to a maximum,coverage level. This maximum is increased each year. In 1989, the maximum weekly benefit was $363 (EIC, 1989). Natural fothers were not eligible for benefitsfrom unemployment Insurance for the purpose of caring for infants. unless the mother was unavailableto care for the infant due to serious incapacity or death (arc, 1988).

since the data was collected for this stUdy new amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act have come into force. These amendments provide for 15 weeks of maternity benefits plus a further 10 weeks of parental benefits which may be taken by either mothers or fathers (EIC, 1990) . The relationship of the findings of this study and issues raised in the literature to these new benefitswill be discussed in Chapter 8.

Aside fr.om the required minimum standard of legislated unpaid leave employers are required to give, some employers provide extra leave and benefits to employees. These leave provisions are usually negotiated through union/management collective agreements. A few employers top-up unemployment Insurance benefits to natural mothersand adoptiveparents to

11 90 - 95\ of the ir sa laryand/o r co ntinuepartoral l of the sa la ry no rma llypa id, forthe peri od of the matsr n i tyLeav e du ri ng whi chune mpl oy ed In s urance is: not avail abl e (Labou r Ca nada, 198 4 ).

Incidenceof .aternityl ••ve and );len.fit. in Newfoundland and Canada.

Averagemate rnityabsencesover theyears198 0-87, among wo r king wome nag e d15- 4 9,was 3.0 pe r10 0 in Newfound l and, th e lowest in Canada (Maloney, 1989 (a». Th e ratio of th e mat erni tyabsencerate tothefertilityra t ein the Canadian provi nces ra ng e s from0.8 7 inQuebecto0.50inNewf o und land and PrinceEdwar d Island. The ra t i o fo r Canadaas a whole is 0.68. The ra tio of mate r nityabs en ces to the fertil i ty rate is thehighe stinQuebec , wh d ch hasthe lowestfer t il i tyrate. The highma te rnity abs en c e /fertilit y ratio for Quebec maybe relatedto enh a nced mate r ni tyreaveprovisions andfinanci al compens ati on in tha t pr ovince, compare d tothe re s t of Canada (Ma l o ney, 1989 (b)).

The durationof matern i ty absenc es is rel ated tothe fi na ncillol compensat ionavai l a b le. InNewfoundla nd, bet wee n 1980-8 7, the averagedu r a tio n of mate rn ity absences wa s 15.4 we ek s . Eighty-six per cent (86\) of these ab s e nc eswer e comp e n sa ted. Seventy- ni ne per cent (79\)of this compensation

12 WAS fro. Une mplopentInsurance. TheCanadianaverage le a v e duration is 18.2 ....eeks , of which 87. 3\ Iscompe n s a t e d . The compon ent of thiscompensationthatcomBS fromUnemployme n t Insuranc e in Can ad a as a wh o l e, at 79' , is the sameas in Newfoundland (Malone y. 19 89(b))•

8WII.D.ary

Womenin Newfoundl andare ente r ing the labour for c e in increasing numbe r s and continuing in paidwork while the ybear andoe z e for you ng ch i l d r en. Tile roleot fat he r s asworkers wi th fami ly re s pon s ibilit i es (ot her than provid ing eco n o mi c a l l y fo r the ir dependents) israrely recog niz e d in pUb l ic policy. Pare ntal leave and bene fi tsar e avai l a b l e on a lim ited bas is onl y, thro ugh a patchwo r k of pro v inc i a l legi s l a tion, federal unempl oyme nt insu r ancebenefitsand the formal po l i cie s and inforaa l pra ct i c esof employers.

How parents co pe with working, childbi rth and infant car e 1n the cur rent Ne wf o"mdland conte xt is the SUb ject of this stUdy. Ouest ions related to thi s topi cha ve impo r tan t economic and social implicatio ns related to the st a t us of women and to themaintenance ofhe a l t h y families.

In the fo ll owi ngcha pt e rs themet ho do l ogy used for the st Udy willbede s crib ed , an analys is of the re sults will be

13 presented and conclusionsdra....n. Recommendations for changes to pUblic policy will bema d e.

Cbapt;.r 2 REVIEWorTBB LITBRATURB

Maternity and paternity leave/benefits

A numbe r of research ers have compar ed pa r ental leave pol i c i es in diffe rent coun t r ies. The Inte r nati on al Labour Organi za t i on (1985 ) compl eted a glo ba l survey of matern ity leave/be ne fi ts from1964 - 1984. The ILO define d mater nity leave/be ne fi ts , for pur po ses of the su rvey, as al l laws, regul at i on s andag r e ement s that provideforspe c i fi cbene fi t s for wo me nworke r s dur ing or afte r preg n an cy, which prote ct thei r jobduring absen ce from work and/ o r repl a c e all or a portion of lost wages. Of the 127 count riessu rveye d, the avera g e len gth ofmate r n i ty leavewas foun d tobe betwee n 12 and 14 weeks . The le a v e period wa s ge ne r a l l y shor te r in developing countries and long erin socia li s t cou ntri es . The su rve yalso foundthattheperiod of leavehasbe en incre a s ing in market economi cssi nc e 1975.

Townson (19 8 5 ) prepared an internatio nal compari s on of parental le a ve, and pre sented options for Canada, in a bac kground pap erprepared for the Cooke Ta skForce on Ch ild Ca r e. Townsonreviewe dpaidmaternityandpatern ityleave in 24 countries, includingCanada. In 23 of thes e coun t r ies , ca sh benet!ts are prov ided by me ansofsocial insurance or

15 public funds, as set out by the International Labour Organization convention nOJ. The one exception was the United states whichhas notrati f i ed lLO Convention1103 and ha s no generally available maternityleave or benefits. with regard to the period. of leave available and the amount of cash benefits,Townsen ranked Canada 22nd of the 23 industrialized cou nt r i e s she surveyed.

Sweden has one of the most generous systemsof legislated parental le a ve and benefits in the world. In 1974 a new law for parental insurance came into effect. When a child is born, both parents can take paid parental le a ve for 10 days, at 901 of salary. The rationale for this le ave is to give motherstime for child birth and fathers time to sharein the care of the new born and/or to loo k after older children.

This part of the insurance is used by virtually all new mothers and 85t of new fathers (Hwang, 1987).

During the first 180 days of thechild 'slife, parental compensationis paidto one or both parents . compensation is 90t of the parentis salary up to a maximum of SEK403 (U.S.

$58) and not less than SEK48 (U.S. $7) per day. The median income for men and women in Sweden in198 6 was SEK222 (U.S.

$32) per day. The parents can decide who goes to work and who stays home. This part of the parental insurance can be

16 di v ided as whole orhalf da ys andl1ust be tak e nwithin the fir s t 9 monthsof the childIs l i fe .

Eachpare nt isthe nentitledto an other180da ysof leave th atcanbeta k en immedi".te l y . t ranare r r edtoth e oth e r pare nt or taken at anytime up to the ch ild 's 7t h birthday.

Remunera tio n is set at 90\of full salary forthe first 90 days and at SEK48fo rthe remainderot the 180day s. Thi s spe c i a l le av e can be used to reduc e an emplo ye eIs work day from8 to6 hour s perday for some portion of the childls li fe. Inad d ition, all Swedishpare n tswithchild r e n unde r theage of8areantitIe dto de c r ease their working hours from 40to 30 hoursperweek,....ithout rec eiv ing compensa tion (Lamb andLev i n e , 19 83).

In the1970 ' s theSwedish qo v e r nmentlau nc hedacampai gn to enco u rage lien to share the joys of par.nthood. Desplt.

this , Hwa ng (1987 ) reports that only about lOt of Swedish fathe r s ta ke advantage of the fi rst180 daysof le a v eandthe propo r t i o n of daystaken by fa t h e rs isonly about 2\. Most Swe di s h mothersnu r se theirbabie s fo r abou t 6 mont h s. Hwa ng specul a t es thatthis maybe thexeeson for thelowtakeupof parental le av eby fathers inthe first 180 days . During the next 90 day s, almost 28\ of fathers tak e some lea ve , representing about 9\of the days take n. The last 90 days, during which theflatrate is paid,are almost nev e r takenby

17 fathe rsand in many cases, no t us e dbymothers eithe r. Many families feel they cannot af fo rd to us ethe last 3 months of par e nt al leave, because the compe nsatio n is so low. The paren ta l insuranceschemeals o al lows ei t h erparentto stay home with sick chi ldren for a maximum of 60 days pe r year until the childis 12 years ol d, at 90%ofsalary. In 19 8 0 , 34 .5\offathersto ok advan t ageofthi s leave.

Dueto SwedenIs pr ov i s i on of legislated leavefo r both parents, studies have be e n done of men'sengagement in and expe rience of parentallea v ein Sweden. In1982the Swedish government did a que s t ionn a i r e survey on men 's at titudes towards pa r e ntal leave (Hwang, 1987). Si xper ce nt (6%) of those surveyed hadbe e n onpare nt a l le ave. The s e menha d the most pos iti ve attitudescompared to thos e who had not ta ke n the le ave. Age of re spondent and age of childre n also affectedatt i t ude . Older menwith te e na ge chi ldrenwere more negative. The uenrs professiullor place of employment was alsoafa c t or . Men wh o wereself-employedor wor kedin male- domi nate dworkpla c e swe r ene gative. Th os e menmostpositive towards pare nt a l le a v eworke dinfema l e - domi natedworkplaces.

Hwang et al (1984) studi~!d 50 fathe rs who had taken pare ntal le a v e . Th e fat hers were askedabout the irvi e ws on the le a ve andanyprob l e ms tha t may have ar isenduring the le a veor whe nthey returnedto work . Theavera ge le ngth of

18 thele a ve was4. 7 mont hs. Abo ut 2/3of the men were satisfied with the le ave pe r i od , but most we r e surp r isedathow time- con s umingchi ldcare wasand wha t hard workit was, whe n done on a full-time basis . Fathers mentioned di f fi culties in planning ti me dur i ng th e da y and adjusting to the childIs rhythm. A common complc.int was one of loneliness and isolation. They ha d little conta ct with other fa t h ers on simila r leave. On the posi ti v e side , the ywereplea s e d to be able to more closely follow the i r ch ild 's development.

Several fathers fel t tha t ona pe r s ona l level , it put the impor t anceof their paidwork in perspective. The womenwho shared le a vewere quite satisfiedwiththe ar rangement.

Reasons for men's reluctance to take advantage of pare nt a l leav e have be e n explore d (Trost , 198 3 ). Mos t men men tiontheir professiona l role, demandsof th e jo b and the family 's economic situation. Severa l said tha t their employers ha d nega tiveatti t udes to....ardmen ta k i ng par e ntal le a v e.

Invest igat ions of Swe d ishemployers ' attit udes towa r ds menta king pa r entalleave hav eshown thatmany are sus p icious and some are very ne g at i ve towar ds fat he rs who ta ke lea ve . Sometime s men are not promote d , or in some ot he r way left behi ndincompet i tio n with co lleag ues. Employ e r skno wthela w tha t requiresthe mtogi v e the le a v e, but feel that fathers

"

are disloyal to the company and unfair to co-workers, ifthey take leave for parental duties (Hwang et aI, 1984 and Hwang, 1985)•

Although many employers have negative attitudes, there is also evidence that references by men to employer attitudes are sometimes a pretext for other reasons . Many fathers do not want to stay home. Evidence for this was collectedby Hwa ng at al (1984) when they found that 3 out of 4 fathers who took leave had not noticed any particular reaction from employers or co-workers, or had received positive reactions.

Mothers' professionor type of employment did not seem to have any significanteffect on the decision of men to take or not take parental leave.

Also in Sweden, few differencesin child development were noted il'.52 middle class families where parents shared leave (Frodi et al 19£1::') and in another study of 145 families (Hwang, 1987). Both these studies showed that the amount of paternal leave significantly predicts subsequent paternal involvement.

Kamerman, Kahn and Kingston (1983) studied maternity leave and benefits in the united states, where there is little government intervention to assist parents with their dual role. They surveyed 250 U.S . companies whose net worth

20 exceeded $500,000. Th e re s e a r ch ers cautionthat theirsample excludedmany smal l firms andthu s their ana lysiswas like ly to overstate th e benefits provided by American business. Al t hough 88% of employers in the survey ind i c ate d they had formal employment poj.Lc Lea which provided maternity leave for femaleemployees .only72% saidthey guaranteedseniorityor the same or a comparable job onre t ur nto work. Theperiodof le av e granted was much shorter than commonlysupposed. Over 50%ofthe 234 firms which allowedleave, gran tedtwo months orle s s.

The U.S. Pregnancy Discriminatio nAct of 1978 requires that employers treat pregnantemployees the same as any other employeewitha te mpo r ar y disability. If a company has no disabilityinsurance planfor employees, then no benefitsare requiredto be paidto pregnant employees wh il ethe y are away from work for child birth. Based on their 1983 survey and relatedwork, Kamerman and Kahn (19B7) estimate th a t fewer than 40% of working women in the U.S. have income protection at the time of child birth Whichpermits them a six week leave, without severefinancial penalty.

Bell, McKee and Priestly (19B3) studied informal leave taking experiences of fathersinBirmingham, Englandandthe impact of workonmen's family roles in the i1ll1llediate post- natal period . Of a sampleof 2B2 new fathe rs ,only13 of the

21 232 employed fathers (4.6\) tocknotime off whentheirchild was born . Most fathersin the study made use of annual leave, sick leave or unpaid leave , since pa t e r ni ty leave was not available. Pena ltieswereoften incurred for taking leave, particularly sick leave or unpaid leave. These penalties includeda backlog of work, employer hostility, lossof pay and in a few cases, joblos s. There was st r o ngsup po r t (91%

of282respondents) for introduci ngpaternity leave.

Division of househo l d lab our

Despite the growth in women's labour force participation, studies have shown that when both spouses work, husbands may help, but women remainresponsiblefor and actuallyperform most householdand childcare tasks. Holstrom(1972) stUdying 27 professional couples, foundthat most husbands did "help out"with householdtasks but few were actually respcmslble for doing these tasks or arrangingto have them done. In another intensivestUdy of 14 dual-worker families, it was foundth a t whilebot h parents participated in childcare, the responsibility for the children remained with the wife (Lien et a1, 197 4).

Two la t e r studies (Lamb et a1, 1987 and P1eck, 198 3 ) compared the degree ofinvo l ve me nt by employedfathersin two parent familieswherethe mothe r is employed and the mother

22 unemployed. In bo th studies, fathers wi t h employed wives spent an averageof 33\ more ti me in directinteraction and beingaccessible(i nthe room with a childbutnot involvedin play or caretaking activities) than fathers in familieswith non-empl oyed mothers. However, there was no evidence that maternal employment statushad any effect on the le v e l s of responsibilitiesfor childcare and household tasks assumedby fathers. Even when mothers wereemployedmorethan 30 hours per week, the amount ofre s po ns i b il i t y assumed by fathers was negligible, just as it was in families where mothers were unemployed.

In a review of the major time use studies of men and women in dual earning couples done in the 1960 ' s and 1970's Hochschild (1989) discovered thatwomen work roughly is hours longer than men each week. Over a year, women worked an extra month oftwen t y - f ou r hour days a year. Over a dozen years,it was an extra year of twenty-four hour days. Most women without children spend much moretime than men on housework;

with children, they devoted much more time to houseworkand childcare . Hoschschild concludes that "just as there is a waqe qap for women in the workplace,there is ale i su r e gap in the home" (p.4).

A more recent study of 651 employees of a Boston corpo r a t i o nby Brad leyGoogins (1987) of BostonUniversity,

23 School of Social Work, found that married mothers spent average of 85 hours a week on the job, homemaking and childcare, while married fathers averaged 66 hours, a gap of nineteen hours.

In 1983,Cov e rm a n studied 1500 white ,workingcouples in the Unitedstates. She found that women did an average of 87 hours of paid and unpaid work, while men did 76 hours. Sara Yogev (1981) studied professional women and men with children, finding that the women worked 30 more hours a week than the

In Canada,the General SocialSurvey done by statistics Canada in 1986, showed that the proportion of women who reported doing housework on a typical day was much higher than the corresponding figure for men: 85\ versus 52%. These women spent an average of::'hours on such chores compared to 2 hours for men. For example, 77%: of women prepared meals on any given day, spending about 1 1/4 hours doing so, while only 29%:

of men prepared meals and averaged less than 3/4of an hour a day doing so. More women than men (54% versus 15%) cleaned up after meals and (45% versus 10\ ) did indoor housecleaning.

Employed women are still responsible for housework. On any given day, 83% of employed women did housework for an average of 2 1/4hours. In contrast, 50%: of working men did

24 housework, tor an average of 1 3/4 hours a day. Hou sework patterns of working lIIen andwomenwhowe re married were even mor e divergent: 89 ' of these wOllendid houseworkcomparedto 51\ofthemen.

As mig ht be expected, childr en inc rease hous e work, pa rt i cularly for wome n. In 1986. wOlllen wh o did hous e work spe nt an averageofjus t underJ 1/2hour seach dayon it, it:

childrenunder 19werelivingat home. Thiswas about 3/4 of anhour more thanwomen wit ho utch ild ren. The presence of child r e n did not affect the percentageof mendoing housework.

About50\ofme n do some houseworkwith orwi t ho ut childrenin the home. He n with children under 19 liv ing at home, did spe nd 20 mi nutes longer on cho res thanother ee n (Marshall, 199 0 )•

Whyarefa thersnot tIlor einvo l ved inand/or res pon s i b ile fo r childcar eand hou s eholdtasks? Lien's (1979) inte nsive st Udy of25 Bost on-area families describes and expla i ns the ambivalenc e ot malest responses to pre s sure to participate moreinncaelife. All families inth estudywere two-earner families with pre-school children . separate interviewswith husbands and vfves , aninterv iewas acouple , and at least three observat:ions of parents with their ch il d r en were conduc ted. Lien fou nd thatments ditticulties inme e t ing new de mands in family lifeare not simpl yth ere s u l t of personal

weakness or a lack of commitment. Rather, difficulties stemmed from inconsistencies between family expectations and the wider society. Men perceived paid employment as their primary contribution to the family and were reluctant to acknowledge that they needed to help in the home. Lienfound that menI8 ecefar support networks were very different from those of women and these networks tend to support traditional roles.

Nugent (1987) reported that fathers in a study of 84 urban, middle and working class families in Ireland were substantially involved in caring for children during the child's first year. Using a list of 10 infant care-taking activities, fathers werc asked about the number of times a week they performed these tasks when the children were one month old, based on a three point scale-never, occasionally (1-2 times/week) or regularly (3-4 times/week). The responses varied, depending on the task; 3\ dressed the baby in the morning regularly; 48\ regularly changed the baby's nappies ; 56\ regularly fed the baby and 93% talked and played with the baby regularly.

Younger men were more likely to be involved in child care in the first month. The same task list completed by the same fathers at the end of the infant's first year, showed similar responses. When the division of labour did not follow

..

traditional lines, fathers often modified their work schedule to eccceacdeee their parental involvement. Fathers who attended pre-natal classes and were present during child birth were 1ll0rA likely to participate in infant care. This suggests a positive relationship between fathers' involvement in child birth and the sharing of infant care. This may be the case, but as the researcher cautions, fathers who were highly involved in pre-natal courses and child birth may have been predisposed towards paternal nurturance.

A U.S. national survey on the quality of working life (Quinn and staines, 1979) showed that 40\ of fathers would li k e to spend more time with their children. While this shows that a substantial number of fathers appear to be motivated, over half of the fathers in the survey did not state a desire for more time with children.

No comparableCanadian studies were found, but a Canadian Surveyof the workforce done in 1985 (Benimadhu,1987) showed that more women than men wanted more time off work to care for children. Forty-two percent (42\) of women 1n the usual childbearing age group (25-34) and women with children under age 5, ranked extra time off for child care and household tasks as most important, compared to 20% of the men surveyed.

.7 Lamb and Levine (1983) cite the Swedish government's publ leity program to encourage fathersI lnvelvement with infants as an indication of one of the attitudinal barriers to male involvement: the notion that i t is effeminate to be involved in child care. Fears that active parenting and masculinity are incompatible are changing but continue to exist and may explain why rnotivation has shifted slo....ly and why no more fathers are taking an active role in child care despite the tremendous changes in female employment patterns.

The support of the family, especially the mother, has been found to be important for father involvement in infant care . The Plack (1982) and Quinn and Staines (1979) studies, mentioned above, showed that somewhere between 60% and 80% of women did not want their husbands to do more. Lamb (1987) suggests that this may be because mothers feel fathers are not competent to care for children or because mothers don' t want to give up the one area of authority that has been traditionally theirs.

The lack of economic support and the presence of barriers imposed by the workplace are most commonly cited by men for their low level of parental involvement(Lamb, 1987).

Although economic barriers ar,d lack of time due to employment commitments influence fathers' lack of involvement in child care, time use studies show that men and women use unpaid time

2.

off differently. Survey data (Pleck,1983) sh o we d thatwhen employeeswere permitted totakeunpaidti me off work, women translated each hour they took off into 40-45 minutes of familywork, whereas men translated each hour they took off intoless than 20 minute s of family work.

Ast ud yre ported by Jac ks on (198 7) in England on child health and education, illustrated the priority of the work role over child care tasks for men. One hundred expecta nt fathers , we r easke d priortoch ild birthi fthe y inten dedto take time off workar ou n d the ti meof bir t hand were then checked to see howmuc h they actuallytook. only5\ tookmor e than 2 weeks, 25 \ took 2 days or le ss; 31%took one week annual leave and 21t took 2 weeks.

•Tacksonargues that the failure of the working....orld , both at an institutionalandpersonallev el,to re cogn.izethe si g nif icance of child birth to mendi srupts the de veloping bond between father and child. Jackson felt that this co nt r i bu t e d tobouts of depres sion su f fe r e d by about 1/ 3of hersample of 100 fathers . Hos t couplesin thisstud y coped by retreatingto traditionalr-otes, Faced withnew parental responsibilities. mos t menwo r ke d overtimeformo r e mon ey or soughtpromotionbydisplayinglo ng hour sat work,whilewomen assumedtheunpa i d roleof infantcare taker.

2.

Ja c ks on ' s wor k indic ates tha t la c k of pate r n i ty le ave preve n t sfa the rs from anequalinvo l veme ntwi thin fants. This conc l us i o nis suppor tedby st ud ies in Swed e n of fathe rs who takepatern ityleave. Us e of patern i ty leave ha sbe e nshown to increase sUbsequent pate rna l inv ol v ement in chi ld care (Lambet aI, 19 8 2 ).

Researc hbyGoldberg,Michae lsandLamb (1985) fo undthat following ch ild birth intwo-e arne rfa milie s,the divisionof labourge ne rall y fo llowstrad itiona l li ne s . DeF r a i n (1979) found tha t parents who shared child care equal ly ha d a cornmi t tme nt to thepr incipleofequal sha ringandhad flexible job schedu les which allowed th em to accomp lish an equal di vision.

Marital satisfaotion and distribution of familyyork

Marital and familythe r a pists working withdual-c are e r coup les (Vogev, 198 3 ) ha ve conunentedthatthe distri bution of fami lywor kis one of the most cr iti c al issues that couple s fa c e. Yogev andBrett (1985 ) investigate dthe relat ionship betwe en marital sati sfactionand percept i on s of dis trib uti on of househol d andchildcare infourgrou ps: husb a nds in two ea rne r famil i e s(n=136 ) ;wive s intwo earne r fa mil i e s (n=136 ); husbands in single earner fa mil i e s (n"'103 ) ; and wives in si ng l e ear ne r fa milies (n=103). For all gr oup s , mar ita l

,.

sa ti s f a c tion ....as greaterfor thos e who perceiv ed thatboth they and their spo useweredoi ng a fair share of family work . In dua l earner famUies the perc ep t io n of distribution of familywork",asa pivotal issu e in ma r ital satisfa c tio n.

Bels ky, Perry - Jenkins andCro u ter (198 5) stUdied the relation shi p between wo r k-famil yint erfere nce and/or support and ch a ng e s in ma r it al satisfaction and marital commun i cations . Thiswasbased on mea s ur es tak enprenatall y and at six and nine months post-partum, in 67cau ca sian families in Pen nsylva nia. The ev idenc e from thi s re s e arc h indicat e s that tensions stemming frOm the wor k place det rime nt a lly aUect mar riage duri ng the tr an siti on to paren t hood..

Gray, Lovejoy ,Piotrkowski, Bond (1990) studied hu sba nd supportiveness and the well-being ot employe d .ot hers wit h infa nts. The wives wereaskedtore p o r t on theirhusbands' part icipa tion in six hous eh old chores (cleani ng, cooking, dishe s , foo dsh oppi ng, laund ryandbill pay ing) thathavebe en trad i t iona lly consi dered"f e mal e " househol d ch ore s,and three ch ild care ta sks (getting up at nightwith the baby, tak i ng the child to the doctor and generaleve r yday careof thebaby when both parentswere pr e s e nt ). Themajority (70.6%)of the 490 women su rveye d reported that th ey we r e primarily respon s i b l e forthre e ormor eofthe househol d tasks. only

31

27.8\ofthe women reported the sharing of three or more of the tasks equally and only 6.8% reported the i r husband was mainly responsible for three or more of the tasks. No responde nt said her husband did the preponderance of al l hous ehold tasks. The pattern rep o r t e d for the child ca re tasks wassimilar. buttheywereso me wha t morelikely (47.5%) to besh a r e d equally . Mostrespondentsperceivedthat th eir husbands were supportive , although they did not reporthi g h levels of concrete help from them. The st Udy fo und a relationshipbetweenthe women's perceptionsofsuppo rt from th e i r husbands an d their wel l - b e ing.

Gender equ i ty issues

Gender equ ity,a stated goalof Canadianpublic policy.

remainselusive. Womencontinuet,·Olecon c e nt r a ted inthree oc c up a t ionalcate g o r ies-cler ica l , satesandservice,in jobs thatof f e r lowerincome and l i t tleopportuni tyforad va n c e me nt (Armstrong &Armstrong, 1978 ). Despiteoccupationalgainsby senewomen in professional areas , the wage gap remains. In 1988 the average earnings of Canadian women who worked full time was only 66% of the averageearnings of Canadianmen who workedfulltime (statistics Ca nada, 1988).

Proponents of policies and programs to promote the adv a nc e me nt of women have longrealize d thatgender inequality

32 exists both at home and in the workplace. The general expectation has been that as women gain more economic power through pUblicpolicy neeeures , they will have more bargaining power with men in all arenas, including the performa nceof family work (Ratner,1980; Luxton, 1986). :I:tis now becoming more evident thatre a s o n s for persistent gender inequality in the labour market and family life are more ci r c u l a r. Bohen (1984) fo u n d that women take more responsibility tor family work than men and therefore curtail their purSUit of training and jobs that would allow them to advance and earn more money.

Men do not want to jeopardize their earning power by spending more time on familywork and expect women to do more at home.

Women oblige, and the system sustains itself.

A number of researchers have noted that women and men experience marriage and family life differently (Baker-Miller, 1976: Bernard, 1982). Bernard (1982) reports that research showsth a t woman and men in diftQrent relationships frQq\1ently differ in their responses to the same questions about who does particularhouseholdtasks in theirfamily. She uses this and other examples to support hertheory of "his" and "hers"

marriage (p.5) . This supports the need fo r a stUdy of both men's and women's attitudes toward and their use of parental leave.

33

8U1Dl1lary of relevant literature

The literature reviewed above provided a basis for this research. International comparisons of parental leave policies and data on womens'useof maternity leavein Canada showe d that Canadian maternity leave/benefitprovisionsare less generous than those in most other industrialized countries . Research on parental leave or paternityle a ve was moredifficult to find in canada, but studiesfrom Sweden have linked the use of paternity leave to the development of paternal nurturance.

The divison of household labour and child care is the sUbject of a number of studies, particularly in North America.

These studiesindicate that women co n t i nue to beresponsibile for a large share of family work even when they work outside the home. Even though an equal sharing of family work may not be a reality for most couples, some evidence indicates that sharing family responsibilitespositively influences marital and parental satisfaction. Th i s suggests that paternity leave could contribute to increased family well being in Canada.

Four studies were found that explored questions similar to those planned in this research (Bell, xcxee and priestly, 1983; Nugent 1987, Jackson, 1987; and Gray et aI, 1990).

"

Thesest ud iesexp l o red fathers ' absences fr o m work forchild birth when paternityleave wa s not formally av a ilable and fathers' involvementin infant care. The se studies were don e in England, :Ireland and tihe uni ted St ates and therefore may ha ve limited relevance for Ca na da, given the differe nt econo mi c and soc i a l context in which the resea r ch was completed.

There is asi g n ifi c a nt increasein fema le labour for ce part i cipation in Canad aand mostwomendo no t dr op outof the labour forceforextens i v eperiodstoraisechildren. Fat hers have little or no le ave pr ovisions to assistin caringfor infants. New social policies and programs are needed to assist parents who are raising a family and both working outs idethe home. Infant care is a criticalarea for both working parents . This researchaskedhow newparents cope with infantcareand their useof parental leave pro vi sions . Difference sbetwe enmen sI and womensI experiences as working parents of infants are explored. The impact of social policieson the abilityof new pa rentsto bala nce work and family responsibili t ie s is assessed and policy changes proposed.

35 Chapte r 3

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of thi s research exploratory.

Inf orm at i on wa s gathered onpa r e nts ' absenc e s from work for chi l d bi r t h and in f an t care , howthey div idehousehold/ch ild care tasks and their satisfa c t i o n with parenthood. Respondents wereal s o asked theiropinionon poll c yque stions relatedtoparental le ave. The re l a tions hi p be t ween their opi n i ons aboutparental lea ve and the divisionof household and child caretasks wasexp l o r ed.

pr op o s!tio na

Based on the lite ratur e reviewed in Chapter2 and the researcherIs experienceas a direct practicesocialworker.a socia l policy ana l yst and a working mother, the fo l l owi ng propositionsweredeveloped andexplo red in the res e a rch :

(1) In most dua l earner families, both mot he r s and fathers areabsent fromwo r kfo r some periodof time aroundthe time of child birth.

(2) Inmostdua l earner families with infants, the divis i on of household an d child care tasks still follows

30 traditional patterns of mothers being primarily responsible for these tasks.

(3) In most dual income families with infants, decisions about division of chlldcare and household tasks are influencedbythe availability/nonavailabilityof paid leave from work for child.,irth/infant care.

(4) Parental satisfaction will be greater for dual mothers and fathers of infants if they share responsibility for childca r e and household tasks.

(5) Mothers and fathers who are employed outside the home want access to paid leave from work around the time of child birth, for a sufficient period to allow them to share infant care.

The pOpUlationaDdthe sample

The population for thisstudy was two-earner parents who had a child born at one of the two maternity hospitals in St.

JohnIs in the period February to July 1989. Over a six month period, the researcher collected a sample of 35 new mothers and 35 new fathers who ....ere in the paid labour force (as defined by Statistics Canada and used in labour market surveys) and ....ho volunteered to participate in the research.

37 The criteria used for inclusion in the samplemeant that the mothers and fathers were cohabiting at the time they agreedto participate in thest udy. The mothersand fathers were asked to participate in a telephone interview when theirbaby was4 months or older. Most interviews were done wnen thein f a nt s were6 months old. All interviewswere completed before the infantIs first birthday.

Awrittendescriptionof there s e a r c h projectwas given to new mothers by the nursing staff of both hospitals (Appendix I). The hospitalswere askedto give the written description of the research project to all newmothers , but withso manydifferent staffnur s e s involved, it is inevitable that some new mo t he r s were missed and not given the description . How manyreceived thedescription. matched the criteria, but decided not to participate, is unknown.

Mothers were asked to consult with the father and if both agreed to participate, the mother was visited by the researcher at the hospital approximately 1 to4days afterthe birth of her child. The research project was further explained to the mother. and she was asked to sign a consent form. Consent forms were signed bythe fathers at the same time, or in some cases signed later and left;at the nursing station for the researcher. The participantswere infonned that arrangements would be made by telephone for a convenient

ti::le to conduct a telephone interview.

"

The interview appointment time was set approximately one ....eek before the interview actually took place.

since collectionof the sample ....as proceeding slowly , a family practice physiciansI clinic was asked for assistance.

Physicianswere askedto contacttheir female patientswho matched the criteriafor inclusion in the study (cohabiting with a partner, bothin the labour force, infant less than one year old). These mothers would have also deliveredat one of the two maternity hospitals inst. John's but did not respond to or were not given my original request. I f the patient agreed ....hen she was approached by her physician,her name was given to the researcher who provided a further description of

::h e project. Approximately five families were recruited using

this method.

This sampling method had strengthsand weaknesses. On the positive side, it allowed for inclusionof mothers and fathers, seeking out the interest of the mothers first. On the other hand, i t biased the sample to parents who could discuss this issue, hence to "progressive" or compatible households. It was not a random sample, but given the small number of cases that could be managed by the researcher alone, the sample could not be considered representative in any case.

since the hospitals only allowed collection of the samplei f

3.

their staff gave the information to the women first, itwas not possibleto keep track of the number of refusals. The thirty-fivefamilies whovo l u nt e e r e d for the studyturnedout to be mo re homogeneous inre l a t i o n to education and incom e than was originallyanticipatedby the researcher. Mothers and fathers in the st udy agreed more on how they di v ided householdtasks than the l i terature sug ge s ts. This will be discussedfurther in Chapters4 and 8.

The researc h instrwa.ent

The instrument used in this study was a st ruc t u r e d questionnaire (see Appendix III and IV). Sincerelati vely little research had been conducted on th is topic , the instrumenthad to beconstructed for the st u d y . bas edon the relevant literaturereviewed in Chapter2.

Questions on fathers' involvement at the time of child birthwere adaptedfrom Bell, aexeeand priestly(1983).The questions on parenta l satisfa ctionwere taken from and/or modeled on a questionnaire developedby Johnson (1980) who st udie d familyplanning in the st.John's area. Johnsonused a five responseLikert -tYPE> sc a l e forquestionsabout parental satisfaction.

co Questions on leave and benefits available to the respondents were based on current employment policies and practices in Newfoundland. Questions about future policies the respondents may support wereba s e d on the literature .

The section on the divisionof household and child care tasks was based on the related literatureon this sUbject. The task lists were generated from the literature and the researcher's knowledge of the mostcommo n tasksperformed in households with an infant. Responsesto questionsin this section were used to determine if the household was traditional, non-traditionalor egalitarian. These variables (traditional, non-traditional or eqalitarian) were correlated with attitudes towards parental leave. The responses to this section were also used to compare motherst and fathers' perceptions of who takes responsibility for household and child care tasks.

The questionnaire for the mother was slightly longer than that for the father. Mothers and fathers were asked different questions about what leave they took at the time of child birth, with mothers asked questions concerningdelivery and hospitalization. Mothers were also asked for spe c i fi c information on children/dependents living in the household and others who help out with child care and household tasks.

Both mothers and fathers were asked questions about employment

41 le a v e /be ne f i ts available to the m, the leave/benefits they wo uld su ppo r t, the distribution of househo l d andch ild ta sks, pare ntal satisfact i on and demog ra ph icdat a.

The ins trume n t was pretestedonthree families priorto it being used in the st Udy. Mi nor changeswer emade as a result of thispre-test.

Dataco l l e c t i o n

The instr umen t was adllli n istered by means of a pre- arranged tel e phoneint e rview. Th isallowe dfor theinclus i on of fa mil i e s in the sample iT'''::l u de d from a wide r ge ographic area thanthe cityofst.Joh n1 s, al t hough the finalsample inc l uded onl y two fam....lies reached by a long distance te l ephone call. 'I'his decision was also ba s ed on the exporience of Johns on (1980) who refe rre d to di f f i cu l t i e s enco unte red in conducti ng pers on al inte rv i ews in the st.

.rc hnrs area. Although app o i ntments were pre-arranged, interviewers fre quentl y arrived at a home to find pl anned re sp onde ntsno t at home, or visi t ors pre s ent. This mea nt tha t interviewersofte n hadtoreturntothe homes seve ra l time s.

Thiscou l d also occur wit hpre-arrang e dtelephone inte rviews, but postpone men t sofar range d interviews woul dnot be sotime consum i ng.

"

The te l e phon e intervie w method was chos e n because it allowedfor inclusionof respond ents froaa.wider geog raphic are a and bec a u se of the lilli te d ti lDe availab le to the re s e archer. The tele ph on e in terview _t hod also al low ed easier acc e s s to lllot hers and fa thers in priva t e and at diffe r e nt •.lmes. Thes efactors were judgedtoout weighany dis ad v antagestheteleph on eintervi e w methodmay have .su chas possible la ck of pr Ivacy in the family for theresp ond e nt s. Even withthe use oftelephone interviews ,about athIrdof the parentswere inte rviewed one after the other. This may ha ve reduc e d prI vac y fo r the partners , and may ha ve discou r a g e d di scre pancie s betwe en respo nses ofpartners (See Chap t e r 6).

Theinterv iewswereapproximately 30 afnueeelong forthe mothersand20-25minut e s longfo rthe fat he rs. Onlytwoof thefamil i e s lived inthelo ng distance dialingare a , but not all fami l ies liverl in the city. A few lived in small e r commun i t iescl ose to St . John's, but th e survey formatdid not pe rm i t anaccura te cou ntof thoseno t liv ing in the ci ty.

Re llearchet bi c li

The research was co nd ucte d accord ing to the Ethics Gui de l i n es for Re s e arc h wit h Human SUb jects published by the Soci a l sc ience and Humanities Rese arc h Council (19 8 1 ).

.3

Approval of the research proposal was received from the Human Subjects Review Committee, School of Social Work, Memorial university of Newfoundland. Permission was granted by the Grace General and St.Clare's Hospitals to collect my sample from obstetrical patients at these hospitals, providedthat the first information about the project was given to patients by the nursing staff. New mothers were given a written description of the purpose of the research (Appendix I). Those who agreed to participate in the research contacted the researcher through the nursingsupervisor. The researcher then visited them at the hospital, gave them more information and arranged to have the consent forms signed (Appendix: II). Confidentiality was assured. Data is presented using methods which ensure that no identi fying information is repot'ted in the analysis. The original questionnaires were identified by numbe r only. The original questionnaires were destroyed after the data was tabulated and no record of the individual families who participated in the research was kept.

..

Cbapt e r ..

DESCRIPTION07 BAHPL!

The samplefor thi s st u dy was35 mot hersand 35fathers of infants who hadch ildrenborn at eitherof twoSt.John's hospitalswith obst etricalfa cilities, or who werepatientsat aSt .John 'sfamilypractice clinic. :Inorder tobe included in the sample, both the mother and the father had to be co h a biti n g andinthe labour force(e mp l oye d, unemployed but looking for work, tempor a rily out of the lab our force upgrading the I r educatIonor onso me form of childbIrth le av e ) when the chil d was born . The respondents, therefore, all lIvedin twopa r ent familieswheretwoincomeswere normally present . The data was col lec tedinthefall of198 9 andthe wint e rof 19 9 0 .

De mo g r ap hi o data

Mot h e r s in the samplerangedin agedfrom 24to39 years withthe averageage being 30 years. Fatherswere sligh t ly older,ranging from27 to 42 years, withtheaverageage being 35 years. The sampl(l was relatively mature, ....ith respondentsin theteenageoryoun g adu ltcategories .

.5

Host were well educated wit hmothe rsas a groupbeing slightlybe t te reducated than fa t he r s as a group (See Figure 4.1 ) . AJ.l the mot he rs had completedhighsch ool, whi l etwo of the fathers ha dle s s tha n hig h schoolgra d ua t ion. Five of the fathersgave highschool graduationasthe i rhighe s tleve l of education attained whi le two of the mothers had achdevud onl yhi gh ecboor.graduation. Themajo ri t y of bot hmothersand fathers had comple ted po s t- s e c o n d aryeduc at i on,wi t h seventeen ofthe mothersand nineof the fathers having a post-secondary diploma. Tenof the mot hers and tenof the fathers had a bachelor le vel universitydegree. Four of the mothers had gra duate degree(s) comparedto three ofthe fathers.

The samp le is biased to wa r ds respondents witha higher le vel of education. In1986 , inth e age groups 25 to 34 and 35to 44 on ly59% of malesand 53% of females inNewfoundland ha d a secondary school diplomaand/or a higher level of education. (Statistics Canada, Summary Tabulationof Labour Force,Mob il ityandSchooling, 1988). Inthis sample all the fema lesand 94% ofthe malesha d completedhighschoo land/or hadahig he r leve l of educat i o n. Only 16%of malesand 8.3%

of fe male s inthe s e age groups in theprov inc e in 198 6 ha d university degrees, whi le29% of males and 29% offe ma l e s in sampl e haduni vers i t y degrees.

Educational Atta inment of the Sample

le l e s sthanhig h school

20 h l ghschoolgrad

a-ecmepost-seconda ry 4- pos 1-secon dary diploma .5 ~u nive,r8 1.1 Y., .d,egre e

6·grad uale diplo ma N

u 20 m b e r 15

a

f R 10 e s p

^a

t

n

t 0

s 2 3 4

Levelof Educat ion

5 6

_ Moth ers ~Fathers

Figure 4.1

This bias may be affected by a combina t ionof age and educationfactors. Theincidence of maternityabsences from work were studied in the Maternity Leave Survey done by sta tis tics Ca na da in 198 5 (Maloney ,1989). Fi nd ing s indicated that the incidence of maternity absences was almost twice as high inthe 30- 34 year oldage group than in womenten years younger (aged 20- 24), although the younger age groupha d a higher fertility rate. This was explained by further study of education le vels. Among universi tygradua testhe incidence of maternityabsences inthe 30- 34 yearage group was even more pronounced. Women withhi g h e r levels of education tend to postpone childbearing to accommodate post-secondaryeducation and some work experience aftergraduation.

The sample alsohad a relativelyhigh income, with over half (19) having a combined family income of over $50,000 before taxes in the year prior to being interviewed. The average family income in Newfoundland in 1988 was $35,906 (Statistics Canada Cat.No. 13208).

Motherspersonalincome beforeta xe s ra ng e d from $10,000 to $15 ,000 (2) up to more tha n $50,000 (1) (seeFigure 4.2). The la r g e s t group of mothers (10) ea rnedbetween $20,000and

$25,000while eight earned between $25,000and $30,000andsix earnedbetween $30,000and $35,000. onlyfive ofthe mothers ha d incomes of over $35,000. The average income of