The Impact Of OECD Countries’ Parental Leave On Women’s Employment And Enlightenment To China

With the continuous decline of China’s fertility rate and the deepening of population aging,in order to promote fertility and alleviate the current population problem,China has continuously adjusted relevant fertility policies in recent years.In 2019,the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Infant and Child Care Services for Children Under the Age of 3,encouraging local governments to explore the trial implementation of childcare leave and maternity leave linked to infant and child care services,and since then,various local provinces and cities have gradually established preliminary childcare leave policies.However,due to the influence of traditional gender concepts,the main body of parental leave is still women,and in the current competitive job market,the increase in women’s vacation time will inevitably affect their human capital.At the same time,in OECD countries,parental leave has formed a very complete system,and the corresponding supporting policies for childbirth are also very perfect,which are prominent in promoting childbirth and ensuring women’s employment.In order to explore the impact of parental leave on women’s employment in OECD countries and promote the construction of policies in China,this study first sorts out the construction process of parental leave policies in OECD countries,analyzes the policy systems of typical countries,and analyzes the current situation and trend of women’s employment in OECD countries.Then,based on gender theory,new family economics theory and Becker discrimination theory,this paper analyzes how parental leave affects women’s employment,and then uses multiple databases such as OECD family database to select cross-sectional data from 25 countries in 2019,and uses OLS model to measure the impact of parental leave and related reproductive policies on the employment rate of women with children and the weekly working hours of working women.Finally,in order to study the implementation status of parental leave in China and its impact on women’s employment,the form of in-depth interviews was selected to interview policy makers and policy users to explore the specific implementation of parental leave.Based on the empirical results and relevant interviews,this paper concludes as follows: First,mother’s parental leave has a negative impact on women’s employment as a whole,and the impact on the employment of women with children aged 0-2 is more significant.Longer parental leave leads to more women withdrawing from the workforce,and working women tend to work shorter weeks and spend time working part-time in the face of longer parental leave.Second,paternity leave has a positive impact on women’s employment as a whole.Paternity leave has a positive impact on women’s employment rates,especially those with children aged 0-2,while the increase in the length of paternity leave tends to increase women’s working week hours.Third,supporting policies for childbirth,especially the provision of childcare services,can significantly promote women’s employment.At the same time,for the female employment rate,the impact of childcare service support is more obvious;For women’s working weeks per week,the impact of financial support for childcare is more pronounced.The parental leave policy of OECD countries has formed a good enlightenment for the construction of relevant policies in China,and the existing parental leave policy in China is difficult to implement due to its late start,rough policy content,lack of quantitative standards,and currently an incentive policy.Based on China’s national conditions and the current situation of the construction of parental leave,this paper draws on the experience of OECD countries and puts forward the following suggestions: longterm adjustment of the parental leave policy system,and the construction of father’s parental leave should be focused on at present;Improve the cost-sharing mechanism for parental leave;Improve the supporting service policies of the birth policy,especially the childcare policy;Establish a good social environment for vacation,promote the formation of a good understanding of childcare leave in the whole society,and reduce the negative impact of leave on women’s employment.