The influence of workplace context on fathers’ use of parental leave in Canada

Much research has examined fathers’ use of parental leave in the international context, focusing on the role of state policies and/or the influence of the family in shaping fathers’ leave decisions. Missing from these analyses is an examination of how the workplace context might shape fathers’ leave use. The current thesis attempts to fill this gap by investigating variation in fathers’ leave use and leave length in Canada as these relate to cultural and structural features of the workplace context. Using data from the nationally representative Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, I run logistic regression and negative binomial regression to test the effects of occupational culture and structural features such as workplace sector and size on fathers’ use and length of leave, respectively. Results indicate a positive and significant effect for management and science-related occupations on leave use but this effect disappears upon the introduction of individual-level control variables. Other work-related predictors include large workplaces and having a permanent job, both of which positively and significantly predict leave use. Length of leave was not found to be related to workplace context. These findings point to the importance of structural features of the workplace in shaping fathers’ use of leave, but not necessarily the length of their leave.Arts, Faculty ofSociology, Department ofGraduat