Men are more often eligible than women for parental leave, but they use it less often: this is the conclusion of a study published this Thursday, July 20 by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees). Attached to the Ministry of Health, the service looked into leave taken by parents on the occasion of the birth of a child. Despite recent developments, inequalities remain.
In fact, in 2021, among the parents of a child under the age of three, 94% of fathers were eligible for paternity leave at the birth of their youngest child, while 82% of mothers were eligible for maternity leave. A difference that the Drees can be explained in particular by the fact that men are “more strongly present on the labor market” than women: more of them are therefore able to claim leave. In France, only future parents in employment or unemployed who have received benefits during the last 12 months are eligible for parental leave.
Among them, there are significant differences, since eligible fathers still take less paternity leave than mothers take maternity leave (71% versus 93%). A gap that widens even further, depending on the professional category. For example, fathers who are civil servants or employees on permanent contracts in the public sector were 91% to assert this right in 2021, followed by employees on permanent contracts in the private sector (82%) and, far behind, employees on short or discontinuous contracts (51%) and finally, the self-employed (46%).
But this study also highlights the growing success of this leave approved in 2002. In 2021, most fathers (72%) asserted their right to paternity leave from the week following the birth of their child. A few years ago, in 2013, they were less than half in this case. On this subject, the Drees evokes “the sanctuary of the first days” of the newborn. Moreover, “about two out of five fathers in paid employment at the time of birth declare in 2021 that they have combined their paternity leave with other types of leave” to stay longer with their child: from 1 to 5 days for 23% of the fathers concerned, 6 to 10 days for 26%, 11 to 15 days for 30% and finally more than 15 days for 21% of them.
In addition, the DREES delivers a first observation of the new habits of fathers since the reform of paternity leave which entered into force in July 2021. “Two thirds of the fathers who benefited from the reform of July 2021 took all of the 25 days of leave, mostly in one go”, thus notes the study, while the reform extended the duration of the leave from 11 to 25 days and opened up the possibility of splitting it. In the majority of cases (80%), fathers prefer to take their leave in a single block, when the remaining 20% split up. And this, for several reasons: not to be absent from work for too long, for organizational reasons, and in a more minority way, to spend time alone with your child.
And if it assures that paternity leave has always been a “success”, the DREES welcomes the fact that it is still gaining ground. It has particularly increased between 2013 and 2021, “under the cumulative effect of the increase in the share of eligible fathers – which goes from 91% in 2013 to 94% in 2021 – and the increase in recourse among eligible fathers (68% to 71%)”. Only downside on the side of unemployed fathers, only 13% take their paternity leave, and this, even if it suspends the obligations of job search and postpones the rights to unemployment benefits.
