In the Nordic countries, it has become common through extensive family policies for both mothers and fathers to be able to take parental leave following the arrival of a new child. Norway, for example, offers parents the chance to take over a year’s worth of leave. As part of this leave, a father’s quota was introduced, which is a set amount of time reserved just for fathers, and this has led to a dramatic increase in the number of fathers taking leave. But what impact does a father’s involvement have on a woman’s fertility decisions?

A study published by Trude Lappegård and Tom Kornstad in the prestigious journal Social Forces looked at Norway using high-quality data, which included administrative registers that covered the entire Norwegian population. Father’s involvement was defined based on their use of the father’s quota. Results indicate that the higher the share of fathers using the quota in the municipality (social norm) where women live, the more likely women were to have their first and second child. In regard to the first birth, the authors argued this indicates that engagement by the father is a social norm since despite these first-time mothers having no experience in parenting and shared childcare, they assume the father will be actively involved.

Looking at the decision to have a second child, the effect of father’s engagement is actually stronger compared to the decision of becoming parents for the first time. The authors suggest several reasons for this finding. For example, childless women are likely more motivated by the desire to have one child regardless of social norms related to the involvement of fathers, while women with one child can more easily understand the potential negative consequences if the father is not involved. However, they also found the influence of father’s involvement on having a third child was not significant.

Another interesting finding was that the father engagement indicator, i.e., the proportion of fathers using the father’s quota, was more important than the gender equality indicator, i.e., how much leave fathers actually take. This suggests that the use of the father’s quota has been embraced by communities and the fact that fathers make use of this time is more important than how much of this time they take.

The authors also simulated different scenarios based on variances in the amount of leave fathers took. They found a greater difference in the transition to the second birth: 63 per cent of women in the simulation had a second child if the father took no leave versus 74 per cent having a second child if 90 per cent of fathers took leave. In a second scenario, they found no difference in having a first child regardless of how much leave was taken, but having a second child was more sensitive to the amount of leave taken.

This research shows that social norms do have a positive influence on first and second births, however, causality cannot be claimed. For women that have experienced raising one child and having a partner that uses parental leave, the social norms about fatherhood had great influence on their decision to have a second child. They emphasise there is still improvement to be made in regard to an equal sharing of the number of days taken by each parent, with women typically still taking more leave, but women do not seem to be as concerned about this: Having a father take leave and be involved is more important than how much leave they actually take. This engagement by fathers, which has become a social norm, could be the reason why the two-child norm has been maintained in Norway. If a society is concerned about low fertility, then a possible solution would be to encourage the involvement of fathers.