Options to share time and use parental leave flexibly are emerging as key features in the research and in policy design overseas. Schemes overseas vary from hyper-flexibility, such as in portions of 1/8 of a full day in Sweden to one period of several blocks of leave, to the option in Greece to take longer periods of leave with lower benefits or shorter periods with higher benefits.

Research evidence suggests there are benefits and risks of shared leave flexibility. The benefits are that parents are able choose their leave arrangements to suit their work and family circumstances. Brandth and Kvande’s 2020 analysis of the Norwegian scheme shows that men do use the flexibility, but also that such flexibility tends to mean that fathers do not fully commit to care. However, they also argue that flexible use of leave by fathers is preferable to no use of leave by fathers.

In terms of simultaneous or concurrent leave, there is less research evidence. However many schemes allow fathers to take leave at the same time of the mother’s specific maternity leave (that is, at birth). Many countries still prescribe an obligatory period of maternity leave for the birth parent. Of the 49 countries studied by Koslowski et al. (2022), 38 have an obligatory period of maternity leave.

A Finnish study (Eurola et al., 2019, p. 5) found that “80% of fathers take simultaneous paternity leave from 2 to 3 weeks while the mother is on maternity leave”, with the proportion unchanged over the past two decades. A study of Swiss parents taking leave together concluded that it allowed for greater ‘equilibrium’ in parenting and in reducing mothers’ gatekeeping of decisions about care and its allocation.

In Australia gender norms are particularly sticky as evidenced during the height of the COVID-19 crisis when lockdowns meant many formal care services, schools and workplaces closed shifting education, childcare, elder care and work for many households back into the home. This pandemic-induced escalation in unpaid care and domestic work was not shared equitably. Women, especially mothers with school aged children, absorbed the majority of the new care load on top of a pre-pandemic load (Craig & Churchill, 2021). This widened the gendered gap in unpaid care and domestic work. This recent evidence on the practice of gendered norms in the division of care labour suggests that an overly flexible or ‘gender-neutral’ approach to policy design may see women continue to take the majority of paid parental leave, leaving existing gender norms around care and paid work unchanged.

Added to this, evidence clearly points to the relationship between payment level while on leave influencing father’s use, such that the national minimum wage level payment of the Australian national scheme is likely to impede high take up rates by fathers/partners. Employer top-up to regular income levels while on parental leave would assist in overcoming the income deficit felt by the household and would also signal cultural support from the employer, another important factor influencing fathers’ use of parental leave (Haas & Hwang, 2008).