Career consequences of work-family reconciliation policy measures introduced in the EU Work-Life Balance Directive (IDUB)
The aim of this project is to study the impact of parental leaves and flexible working arrangements on workers’ career prospects from a gender perspective. We will investigate how the parental leave uptake and its length as well as the willingness to use flexible working arrangements, such as working from home, impact the hiring and pay opportunities of mothers and fathers. Furthermore, we will analyse potential reasons for differential treatment of mothers and fathers that make use of leaves and work from home by revealing how they are perceived by employers in terms of their work commitment and reliability. Our study will be situated in Poland, a country where the use of parental leaves by fathers is notably low, and the traditional gender role attitudes, where women continue to bear a greater share of childcare responsibilities than men, are widespread.