The Importance of Being There

Worldwide, there is a gender gap in the utilization of parental leave benefits, with women using more leave than men. To understand this divergence within California, the author of this dissertation used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the gender gap in usage of California’s Paid Family Leave Program (C-PFL).

The author used a quantitative data analysis and interviews with parents who were eligible to use the program to investigate the factors that determine whether a father uses the program. The single most-common factor determining whether a father used leave was financial. Other factors, such as personal motivation, spousal encouragement, and workplace support, made fathers more likely to use leave. Both the data and the interviews take into account gender and other personal characteristics and how those characteristics may have influenced choices to use the program.

The author found through interviews that, despite men’s lower utilization, there was a near-universal belief that men should be involved and present in their children’s lives. The author concludes with recommendations the state of California could implement to further encourage male use of the program.