(Dis)incentives for women’s returning to work? A cross-country comparison of family policies and their parental leave entitlements

Parental leave policies play a crucial role in ensuring employment security for parents, especially mothers, by enabling them to take time off for childrearing without experiencing employment disadvantages. While most OECD countries have implemented gender equity reforms in parental leave policies, significant differences remain, shaping how mothers and fathers take leave and influencing their employment trajectories after childbirth. This article presents a comparative analysis of parental leave policies in Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States to provide an overview of how parental leave entitlements differ not only across countries, but also by gender. By examining how gender ideologies resonate with policy reforms, I use indicators from the OECD Family Database to show how gendered parental leave entitlements create incentives or disincentives for mothers to reenter the labor market. In doing so, this study critically examines the gap between the goal of gender equality in parental leave reforms and their actual impact on gender inequality in the labor market.