Understanding daddy quotas as a part of the gender structure: the case of the Slovak leave policy for fathers

Dančíková, Zuzana (2023) Understanding daddy quotas as a part of the gender structure: the case of the Slovak leave policy for fathers. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

Over the past decades, daddy quotas have been gaining popularity as a solution to the inequality in the gendered division of leaves, however, their uptake by fathers has varied within and across contexts. In my thesis, I argue such variation in effectiveness of daddy quotas can be better understood if we conceptualize them as a part of a context-dependent, multi-dimensional, interconnected, and dynamic gender structure. To illustrate my argument, I focus on a case study that has received little attention in academic literature: the Slovak daddy quota with “best practice” characteristics, introduced into a gendered context with inegalitarian features. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, I explore the effects of the policy on the gendered division of leaves, why they have been limited and how to best study the relationship between policy and behaviour. In my first paper, I argue that to understand the effectiveness of daddy quotas, it is helpful to focus not only on changes in parents’ division of leave in response to policy reform, but also on changes to further dimensions of the gender structure, including gendered norms or gendered identities – which, if unaffected by the policy, may continue constraining parents’ decision-making on their division of leave. In the second paper, I explore why gendered norms on the division of leaves have remained unchanged in response to the Slovak daddy quota. Building on scholarship that suggests policy may contribute to normative transformation, I argue such changes will be context-dependent. In the final, co-authored paper,1 we consider how the policy might be studied by quantitative researchers interested in isolating causal effects of daddy quotas and then argue that such an approach makes for an uneasy fit with understanding policy as a part of a dynamic gender structure – as set out in the first two papers.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Zuzana Dančíková
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Sets:	Departments > Gender Studies
Supervisor:	Plomien, Ania and Sigle-Rushton, Wendy
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4751

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