Parental Leave in Estonia: Does Familization of Fathers Lead to Defamilization of Mothers?

In comparison with its Nordic neighbours, the post-Soviet Estonia, with its fair share of deeply rooted gender stereotypes and dominant heteronormativity, does not live up to the dual earner/dual carer family model. Despite having developed a generous leave scheme modelled after the Nordic countries, the father's contribution to child-care remains almost non-existent, and progress towards equalizing the division of care has been slow. Using registry data, the current study shows that, in addition to fathers' low take-up of parental leave, when the father does take leave, this does not always result in the immediate employment of the mother. Without some role reversal, the impact of the father's leave remains even more limited. The study shows that the familization of fathers has less probability of leading to the defamilization of mothers if the mother was previously unemployed, of young age, or with four or more children.