Workplace culture affects fathers' parental leave outtake in Sweden
In workplaces and organisations where overtime is widely endorsed, fathers are less likely to take parental leave. No such relation is found for mothers. This suggests that parents’ decision about who will stay home with the children is partly influenced by their work culture, according to Flore Debruyne, the researcher behind the study.
Sweden is considered to have one of the most generous and gender-equitable parental leave regulations in the world. Despite this, there is still a significant difference between mothers’ and fathers’ parental leave uptake. To understand why the inequality persists, Flore Debruyne, PhD student at the Department of Sociology, studied how overtime affects parents’ inclination to stay home with their children.
Flore Debruyne examined whether individuals who worked overtime before they had children were less likely to take parental leave than their counterparts. Furthermore, she looked at how workplace and organisational norms affected parental leave uptake. She made the distinction between workplace and organisation because norms could differ in different parts of large organisations.
The study found that fathers are less inclined to take parental leave in workplaces and organisations where overtime is widely accepted or endorsed. Individual work time habits made no difference on parental leave uptake.
Flore Debruyne. Photo: Private
“I think it’s interesting that for fathers, regardless of their individual overtime, it was their environment that shaped their decisions,” says Flore Debruyne.
For mothers, the study found no such relation. This suggests that mothers are still expected to take time off from work, regardless of their work devotion or work culture.
Flore Debruyne explains that there is a misconception about parental leave being completely a family decision. In fact, there is a considerable negotiation that needs to be done in the workplace for parents to take leave from work, since they are asking to be physically absent.
“Sure, regulations like the EU directive about non-transferable leave have helped a lot. But when designing policies, we’re not thinking about that the workplace also has a say. Legally, they’re not allowed to say no to you, but they can still have influence. For instance, you could lose the big promotion that was coming up. And that should be taken into consideration as well,” says Flore Debruyne.
More about the study
The study was published in Community, Work & Family
Contact
Last updated: 2026-02-18
Source: Department of Sociology