Darby Saxbe and
After President Biden left paid family leave out of his Build Back Better Act last month, a familiar marshaling of forces took place. Women’s groups and female leaders protested. Senator Patty Murray of Washington said Democrats should not “tell all the women in this country that they can’t have paid leave.” Democratic leaders, well aware that women are the base of the party, have restored four weeks of family leave, at least for now.
But as with so much about parenting, the focus was on mothers, and that’s outdated and misleading. Although women bear the brunt of family caregiving in the United States, paid leave is more than a women’s issue. Research conducted by our lab and others in our field shows the importance of family leave for mothers and fathers. There is more evidence than ever for the benefits of paternity leave — for fathers themselves, and the rest of the family too.
Paternity leave bolsters family relationships. Among 6,000 couples followed from when their child was a baby until kindergarten age, couples in which fathers took even just a week or two of paternity leave were 26 percent more likely to stay married, compared with couples in which fathers took no leave. Another study found that when fathers took paternity leave, their children reported closer relationships with their dads nine years later.
One reason paternity leave might boost fathers’ relationships is that parenting experience transforms men’s brains and bodies. Men’s hormones can shift both before and after a child’s birth, and there is exciting new evidence that fathers’ brains reflect the transition to parenthood as well.
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