Existing literature shows the importance of maternity leave as a strategy for women to balance work and family responsibilities. However, only a few studies focused on the long-run impact of maternity leave length on maternal health. Therefore, how exactly they are related remains unclear. We examine women’s selection into different lengths of maternity leave as a potential explanation for the inconclusive findings in the literature on the association between maternity leave and maternal health. This study aims to unravel the association between maternity leave length and mothers’ long-term health in Germany. Drawing on detailed data from the German Statutory Pension Fund (DRV), we estimated the association between maternity leave length and sick leave from 3 years following their child’s birth for 4,243 women living in Germany in 2015 by applying discrete-time logistic regression. Our results show a negative relationship between maternity-leave length and long-term maternal health, likely driven by negative health selection. Long maternity leaves of more than 24 months were associated with worse maternal health in the long run, while a positive association emerged for vulnerable women with pre-existing health problems.

The return from maternity leave to work is a critical career transition period for working mothers. To help their readaptation to work, we developed and examined a training program for cultivating their work–family balance self-efficacy in a pretest–posttest design and investigated the time-lagged effect of the boosted self-efficacy on their employment attitude and in-role performance after they returned to work. Data were collected from 100 maternity leave takers from 16 companies in Japan before the training (Time 1), immediately after it (Time 2) and 6 months after returning to work (Time 3), and from their supervisors at Time 3. We found that maternity leave takers displayed an increase in work–life balance self-efficacy after the training. We also found that work–life balance self-efficacy after the training (Time 2) predicted the participants’ in-role performance (Time 3) reported by their supervisors, but not employment attitude reported by the participants (Time 3). Our study thus offers preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of the training program in helping maternity leave takers’ readaptation to work, potentially supplementing existing family-friendly policies.

Recent years have seen the rapid passage and modification of family leave policies in Latin America, a surprising trend, given the region’s historically conservative gender norms. This article argues that the rise of new paternity leave policies—as well as the modifications to longer-standing maternity leave policies—reflects contending visions of gender and the family, mediated by the institutions and actors that populate the region’s political landscape. Using an original dataset of family policy measures, this article finds that the factors facilitating the adoption of new, vanguard policies, such as paternity leave, function in ways different from those that shape the expansion of longer-standing policies, including maternity leave.

Family and medical leave policy in the United States is often noted for its lack of wage compensation, but is also distinctive in its gender neutrality and its broad coverage of several types of leave (combining pregnancy leave with medical, parental, and caregiving leave). This article argues that the distinctive design of leave policy in the United States is explained by its origins in contestation over the civil rights policy regime that emerged in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, women's movement advocates creatively and strategically formulated demands for maternity leave provision that fit an interpretation of this new policy regime's antidiscrimination logic. Because of this decision to advance an antidiscrimination claim, advocates became committed to pursuing a leave guarantee on gender-neutral grounds, which in turn enabled the broad-coverage leave design. This case study suggests that scholars of social policy and American political development should pay greater attention to the impact of civil rights on social policy. This article also contributes to the study of policy development by providing an example of how political actors cross boundaries between policy domains during the policy making process and by presenting a reconceptualization of “policy regimes.”

This paper examines family leaves in Ireland, particularly for fathers, in the context of changing parenting roles and the increased involvement of fathers in the care of their child(ren). Drawing upon the results of a survey that captured the views of 637 parents and focus group discussions with parents, it highlights parental experiences of parental, paternity and maternity leave. Policy changes are explored to assess the preferences of fathers and mothers in terms of payment, duration and transferability of leaves between parents. In tandem with women's increased access to employment, the study examines evidence of men's desire for greater equality in family roles. The question posed is whether a policy response is needed in relation to fathers' rights to family leave and, if so, on what terms?

The planning women (N = 199) do during pregnancy for their return to work post birth and the factors that influence employment planning during late pregnancy were investigated in this study. The findings revealed three components of planning: Planning for Childcare, Planning with Partner, and Planning with Employer. Several factors emerged as consistent cross-sectional predictors of these components (work satisfaction, hours worked before commencing maternity leave, anticipated weeks of maternity leave and anticipated hours per week on the return to work). Anticipated support from family and friends, and from the workplace also predicted Planning with Partner and Planning with Employer, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.