Shifting worlds of father politics? Comparing path-departing change in paternity and parental leave policy in Germany and the UK

Abstract

How families balance employment and the care of young children has become a focus of dynamic policy change in many high-income countries since the 1990s. While there has been a broad shift across the OECD away from male-breadwinner model work-family policy regimes, there is much variation in the extent to which policies targeted at fathers have been part of these changes. Examining this variation, this article compares two cases which both represent 'late path shifters' away from the male-breadwinner family model, yet whose trajectory in terms of 'father politics' are very different: Germany, which has introduced well-remunerated, non-transferable periods of leave for fathers, and the UK, where leave policy has remained overwhelmingly focused on mothers. This article seeks to explain these different trajectories through an analysis of the political role of ideas in the two processes of reform. Drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with policymakers, it argues that a substantial shift in ideas about the role of fathers underpinned the reforms in Germany, while no such shift took place in the UK. This difference is explained with reference to political conditions, which created similar but different windows of opportunity for change, and the impact of existing policy legacies.