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The Social Politics of Fatherhood
in Spain and France: a Comparative Analysis
of Parental Leave and Shared Residence
Anna Escobedo
Universit? de Barcelone
Llu?s Flaquer
Universit? autonome de Barcelone
Lara Navarro-Varas
Universit? autonome de Barcelone
R?SUM?
Les politiques sociales de la paternit? en France et en Espagne : une analyse compar?e du cong? parental et de la r?sidence
partag?e
L?article pr?sente une analyse comparative de l??volution des politiques relatives aux cong?s paternels et ? la garde conjointe
en Espagne et en France dans la derni?re d?cennie. Ces deux mesures sont toutes deux largement reconnues comme
instruments importants de la promotion de nouveaux styles de paternit? et par cons?quent d?une plus grande ?galit? entre
hommes et femmes dans l?Union europ?enne. Alors que la rh?torique du choix a ?t? d?velopp?e dans les deux pays en
mati?re d?emploi de la m?re et de garde d?enfants, avec de meilleurs r?sultats en France qu?en Espagne, il reste ? voir dans
quelle mesure la possibilit? de choix sera aussi ouverte aux p?res.
Mots-cl?s : Paternit?. Famille. Politique sociale compar?e. Cong? parental. Garde conjointe.
Anna Escobedo
Department of Sociology
and Organizational Analysis
Faculty of Economics and Business
Universidad de Barcelona
Diagonal 690
08034 Barcelona
Espagne
anna.escobedo@ub.edu
Llu?s Flaquer
Sociology Department, Building B
Universidad Auton?ma de Barcelona
Campus of Bellaterra ?
Pla?a Nord, edifici MRA, planta 2
08193 Bellaterra
Espagne
lluis.flaquer@uab.cat
Lara Navarro-Varas
The Institute of Regional and Metropolitan
Studies of Barcelona (IERMB)
Universidad Auton?ma de Barcelona
Campus of Bellaterra ?
Pla?a Nord, edifici MRA, planta 2
08193 Bellaterra
Espagne
lara.navarro@uab.cat
While the social construction of motherhood
together with the cultural and institutional construc-
tion of the relationship between working parents and
the welfare state has for long focused most research
attention, in recent years the inquiry into the social
politics of fatherhood has been gaining a more prom-
inent status in the research agenda [Hobson and Mor-
gan, 2002]. Whereas for many years the role of fathers
as economic providers has been taken for granted, only
in recent times their contribution to families as poten-
tial carers is being considered and developed as a sig-
nificant research theme. Even if the promotion of the
adult worker family model form has become central
to contemporary family policies, there is still a clear
ambivalence around the measures applied to achieve
equal opportunities for mothers and fathers. In general
mothers have better conditions for paid parental leave
or to adapt flexible working schedules. Although it is
true that fathers? caring responsibilities are increasingly
recognised in most countries, the shift from the male
breadwinner family towards a new adult worker model
requires a fundamental reorganisation of welfare states.
Only promoting men?s participation in unpaid care at
a similar level as women?s, particularly in childcare and
upbringing, will genuinely improve gender equality.
In this context, it is important to examine the extent
to which European welfare states are increasingly sup-
porting as well as enforcing the right of children to
receive care from both parents by assessing innovative
policy developments in so far as they can contribute
to the construction of a new fatherhood.
The purpose of this article is to provide a compa-
rative analysis of policy developments on leaves for
fathers and joint custody in Spain and France in the
last decade. These two types of measures have been
selected in the extent to which they are both widely
recognised as main instruments to promote new father-
ing styles and consequently more gender equality in
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the European Union. The introduction of a father
quota and of joint legal custody as the norm after
divorce in many countries following the lead of the
Nordic nations is supplying very rich experiences to
comparative research [Bj?rnberg, 2006; Duvander and
Jans, 2008]. It is also expected that these new social
practices as well as institutional arrangements will bring
about an enhancement of the children?s well being.
The comparison between Spain and France appears
relevant because although both neighbouring coun-
tries exhibit very different path dependency patterns
of welfare state development, in fact their provisions
for shared residence and paternal leave are not quite
dissimilar. 1
? General comparative overview
The comparison of family policies toward new
fatherhood in France and Spain is problematic because
these two countries have long exhibited to a great
extent different patterns of social structure and paths
of development. Before proceeding to describe specific
trends and measures regarding new fatherhood policies
it may be useful to provide a general overview of family
policies in France and Spain so that it is possible to
understand the significance of new developments and
place them in their proper context.
While France has undoubtedly been one of the
European leaders in the historical modernization proc-
ess, Spain is clearly a latecomer as far as economic and
political development is concerned and it may be still
considered as an outlier in many respects. However,
since the democratic transition and in particular during
the last decade Spain has been catching up very quickly.
To give only one single example in order to illustrate
the exponential growth of parameters influencing fam-
ily policies in Spain in recent years, while from 1998
to 2009 economic activity rates of women aged 25 to
54 years have increased by 17.2 percentage points, in
France they have only risen by 5.2 points (the EU-25
average being 6.6 points) 2.
Despite this dramatic change in women?s labour
market participation, in a European perspective Spain
is still lagging behind in its development of family
policy. The contrast between the significance of family
policy in France and Spain may be easily visualized by
looking at different rates of social expenditure in family
and children in these two countries. Whereas Spain
only devotes to family and children 1.50 % of GDP
(358 m per inhabitant), the resources spent by France
in this area are much larger: 2.47 % of GDP and 749 m
per inhabitant 3. These great disparities can be
explained by different timings of development and path
dependence patterns. While in Spain family policy has
been the Cinderella of social policies since the demo-
cratic transition, in France its prominence is undispu-
ted and it has gathered a wide political consensus over
a long period of time [Valiente, 1997; Commaille and
Martin, 1998]. This brief outline about different pat-
terns of development and the visibility of family pol-
icies in both countries may help understanding how,
in general, France has been much ahead than Spain in
the occurrence of most debates and in the introduction
of new measures.
? The development of paternal leave
in Spain and France
Parental leave policies emerged in the seventies as a
mechanism to protect family formation and the
upbringing of children in dual earner family societies.
Progressively more gender-neutral family-related
leaves have been in development in Europe as part of
the emerging gender, care and work arrangements in
society. Leave arrangements for working parents and
informal careers in European policy have become a
regulatory mechanism of the changing relationships
between individuals in families, the labour market and
the state.
Parental leave schemes are regulated forms of
absence from normal work, connected to social pro-
tection, in order to facilitate parenting and the care of
children. They provide time, economic support and
job protection to parents as individual as well as family
entitlements related to a newborn or a small child.
Leave schemes for working parents are mainly: mater-
nity leave (cong? de maternit?); paternity leave (cong? de
paternit?); parental leave or childcare leave (cong? parental
d??ducation); and leave to care for a sick child. A few
countries have fused these previous categories into a
single modernized parental leave scheme with unified
earnings-related conditions.
Parental leave is presently contributing to the shap-
ing of new forms of both motherhood and fatherhood
? a more planned, negotiated and reflexive parenthood.
It involves the social definition and legitimacy of
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protected but also limited periods of time devoted to
upbringing. These periods are defined and socially
constructed in different ways for women and men.
Nevertheless, the new trends in leave policies suggest
the development of more gender neutral and flexible
pools of care leave entitlements, together with public
support for the development of early childhood edu-
cation and care service sectors [Deven and Moss, 1999;
Kamerman and Moss, 2009]. This gives scope for new
individual choices and a more reflexive way to deal
with parenthood and informal family-based care both
for men and women.
O?Brien discusses how parental leave has the poten-
tial to boost the father?s emotional investment and con-
nection with infants. She suggests the possibility of a
new polarization for infants: the risk of being born
into either a ?parental leave-rich? or ?parental leave-
poor? household or country [O?Brien, 2009]. Within
this perspective, fathers risk more than mothers
through a loss of contact with their children after
divorce, as a result of lower previous investments in
direct physical parental care.
Parental leave is a social policy mechanism conceived
to counteract economic effects, protecting maternal
attachment to employment, while promoting male
involvement in child raising. Effective parental leave sys-
tems can alleviate these types of social risks, provided
that they guarantee job security, economic stability,
gender sharing, and the individualization of parental
care bonds. Male groups and movements have particu-
larly supported the father?s individual entitlements to
leave as a basis for his bonding with children, and caring
involvement since birth, to promote caring routines to
prevent or alleviate the effects of conjugal breakdown
later on, particularly to preserve the contacts between
fathers and children [Nordic Council of Ministers,
1995]. Researchers have evidenced that parental leave
policies actively promoting a caring fatherhood con-
tribute to modify the distribution of the roles and the
tasks between mothers and fathers since the transition
to parenthood in different Northern European coun-
tries in a more egalitarian direction with longstanding
effects [Rostgaard, 2002; Lammi-Taskula, 2006;
O?Brien, Brandth and Kvande, 2007; Moss, 2008].
Parental leave, defined as an earning-related entitle-
ment encompassing fathers was introduced in Sweden
in 1974. In the 1990s, parental leave spreads over
Europe with a growing attention on gender sharing.
Against the fact that fathers rarely use family defined
entitlements, Norway introduced in 1993 the
individualization of some of the periods of parental
leave for the father (the father?s quotas), Sweden fol-
lowed this mechanism in 1995, and Iceland introduced
in 2000 a 3 + 3 + 3 parental leave system, where three
months are for the mother, three for the father and
three months can be used as wished by the family. The
three cases nearly automatically succeeded in raising,
in the same proportion as the father?s quota, the
father?s share of leave entitlements. As an approach to
the father?s share of total leave arrangements for work-
ing parents, in 2007 the percentage of total paid leave
days used by fathers amounted to 31 % in Iceland, 22 %
in Sweden, 11 % in Norway, 6 % in Denmark and
Finland [Haataja, 2009].
Following the expansion of comparative policy
methods, in the 2000s most EU countries have revised
and closely followed up their policies of parental leave.
Fathers non-transferable parental leave entitlements are
spreading across countries either on a ?use-it or lose-
it? or conceptualized as an extra well paid leave bonus
for the family (e.g. in Finland, Germany or more
recently in Portugal). Also paternity leave is being
extended in time, and as paternity leave is not currently
regulated at EU level, in 2010 the European Parliament
proposed to regulate two weeks of fully paid paternity
leave, in the framework of the discussion of a new
maternity leave directive (amendment 125 of the EP?s
position adopted on 20/10/2010). French ethno-
graphic research has emphasized the interest of pater-
nity leave to support a more active presence of fathers
at birth. Fathers can then innovate to some extent the
matrifocal practices in maternity hospitals and health-
care policies, and experience different starting patterns
of fathering [Truc, 2006].
In 2010, twenty of the EU Member States have stat-
utory paternity leave, ranging from 2 to 90 working
days, with compensation ranging from no payment to
full payment. Take-up rates of paternity leave are rel-
atively high, with more than two thirds of fathers gen-
erally taking up such provisions where they are
available [EPEC-COWI, forthcoming].
France developed in 1985 a parental leave scheme
(cong? parental d??ducation, within the Labour Code)
connected to a flat rate benefit, initially addressed to
large families, later extended to two-child parents in
1994 and finally to single-child parents in 2004 within
a broader reform of the French child related allowan-
ces. The scheme is now available as a family entitle-
ment either on a full-time or part-time basis, for six
months following the end of maternity leave, in case
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of a first child, or otherwise until the child is 3. The
benefit (compl?ment de libre choix d?activit?, CLCA, paid
by CNAF) ranges from 560.40 m per month on a full-
time basis in 2011 (approximately half of the minimum
wage in France), to 322.24 m on part-time basis, up
to 80 % of normal working time in the company. It is
often supplemented by other family allowances. The
benefit is largely used by mothers: by one out of eight
of families with a first child, and by more than half of
the families with two or more children, the youngest
under 3 year-olds (41 % use it part-time, more than
half of them also receive a childcare benefit: le compl?-
ment de libre choix du mode de garde). Fathers represented
3.7 % of the recipients in 2009, 1.4 % of recipients
were partners using it part-time [Nicolas, 2010].
Various researches have documented to what extend
the full-time benefit is largely used by both mothers
and fathers with lower education and wages, reinforc-
ing gender and social inequalities [Fagnani, 2009;
Berger, Chauffaut et al., 2006]. Recipient fathers more
easily have a more qualified couple with higher earn-
ings or belong to atypical family configurations [Anxo,
Delander and M?nsson, 2006; Boyer and Renouard,
2004].
In the 2000?s the father?s use of the French leave
system was more clearly introduced in the agenda. In
2002 paternity leave was extended from three working
days to two weeks. While the extended 11 days were
paid by the Social Security, the first 3 days remained
paid by the employer. Two-thirds of eligible French
fathers take paternity leave according to the most
recent data available.
The gender equality debate has mostly focused in
France between promoters of good quality publicly
funded childcare facilities and promoters of the option
to take care of small children at home, resulting in what
has been considered a parental choice orientated leave
policy model [Wall and Escobedo, 2009]. As a result
France has both a high coverage of mostly publicly-
funded childcare services for small children (around
40 % of children under 3 years old, Eurostat EU-SILC),
and despite gender neutral discourses, a parental leave
system is mostly orientated to mothers, particularly to
low paid mothers, for whom benefits are a feasible
alternative to low wages. However the low share of
paternal use of the French leaves is relevant since it
points to more diverse family configurations and
parenting styles [Chevalier, 2006].
In Spain the leave system has pivoted between 1980
and 2007 on a well paid maternity leave and a pool of
unpaid gender neutrally defined parental leave available
until the child was 3, or working time reductions until
children were 6, the stronger policy focus clearly being
on extending early education to pre-school children.
A short leave policy model linked to traditional pat-
terns of extended family care was assumed in Spain,
with a strong emphasis on female labour market inte-
gration, and little attention to leave policies.
Leave policy turned into an issue from 2000
onwards, when the concept of reconciliation of work
and family became popular in the Spanish policy
agenda, following European directives, the European
Employment Strategy and Gender Equality Plans while
maternal employment was on the rise. Various auton-
omous communities (the Spanish state is decentralized
in 17 regions) started to introduce flat rate benefits
(lower and more restrictive than in France, ranging
from one third to four fifths in some cases of the min-
imum wage, which in Spain is 641 m in 2011) to
stimulate the take-up of unpaid parental leaves or the
use of working time reductions. In 2007 central state
policies moved the focus of the leave policies towards
paternity leave and towards very flexible voluntary and
reversible working time reductions. From the perspec-
tive of early childhood and care policies the focus has
always remained on expanding early childhood edu-
cation and care (ECEC). As a result the Spanish ECEC
coverage is currently very similar to the French (around
40 % of the under 3?s and nearly 100 % of children
3 years old up to compulsory school age, which is 6
in both countries), but with a lower share (around
12 %) of the under 3 in publicly-funded facilities [MEC,
2011].
In 2007 a new paternity leave scheme was intro-
duced, very similar to the French scheme, in the frame-
work of a Gender Equality Law (Ley Org?nica 3/2007,
para la Igualdad efectiva de mujeres y hombres). It was the
first time that fathers received an individualized enti-
tlement paid by the social insurance system, the pre-
vious two days of birth leave for fathers being paid by
employers. The 2007 legislation included a commit-
ment to a four-week paternity leave, expected to be
implemented from 1rst January 2011, but the measure
has been postponed in the context of public budget
cutbacks as a result of the financial crisis.
The length of paternity leave is currently of fifteen
days, paid one hundred percent of earnings, by the
Social Security Fund with the same ceiling as mater-
nity leave, except for the first two days that continue
to be paid by employers or by self-employed in the
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private sector. The entitlement is gender neutral so as
to encompass same-sex couples. The rate of Spanish
eligible fathers taking paternity leave is slowly but
steadily growing from 54 % in 2008 to 58 % in 2010 4.
At the same time, unpaid working time reductions
have been extended and made more flexible for fam-
ilies: from one eighth to one half of working time until
a child is 8 (or 12 in the public sector) or to care for
a dependent relative 5.
In 2008, 37,771 people started some period of
parental leave. This corresponds to 7 % of the births
in that year, but only 2.5 % of children under three.
Fathers made up 4 percent of users [Statistical Year-
book of the Ministry of Labour]. Research has esti-
mated that between 1989 and 2005 96 % of users have
been mothers, with a median length of leaves of 184
days and 4 % fathers with a median length of leaves of
172 days; 36 % of fathers and 26 % of mothers used
unpaid parental leave for less than three months. 11 %
of user mothers and 25 % of user fathers did not return
to the same company, which means that in these cases
the use of parental leave is connected to a change in
employment status [Escobedo, Navarro and Flaquer,
2008].
Research results suggest that the Spanish parental
leave scheme increases gender and social inequalities,
as it reinforces gender role specialization and only sup-
ports the reconciliation of work and family life among
workers with a stable position in the labour market
[Lapuerta, Baiz?n and Gonz?lez, 2010].
Based on data on complementary measures in the
Catalan public sector produced for years 2003-2006,
it was possible to find out that fathers made a high use
of specific parental leave arrangements, on part-time
or full-time basis, that were well paid on an earnings-
related basis, worked as individual non-transferable
entitlements, highly protected, in favorable workplace
cultures. Under these conditions the observed female
use of partial leave measures has also been noticeably
high. Part-time leave arrangements are shown to be in
that case a type of good quality, voluntary and rever-
sible working time arrangement.
First France in 2002 and then Spain in 2007 have
developed paternity leave schemes in a very similar
way. Parental leave remains in both countries not much
widely used by fathers, as in Spain is unpaid and not
much used by mothers either, and in France is paid at
a flat rate (about half of the minimum wage) and much
more used by mothers. While the rhetoric of choice
is being developed in both countries, in practice choice
seems rather restricted to some groups of mothers, and
is higher in France than in Spain. Both fertility and
female employment rates are higher in France than
Spain (2 versus 1,4 children per woman, and 77 % of
female employment versus 64 % in 2009 in the 25-54
age group, with around on quarter of women on part-
time mostly voluntary in France and unwished in Spain
[EC, 2010]). However non-affordable schemes cannot
be considered in practice as a real entitlement, partic-
ularly for fathers who are taking on breadwinner roles
in societal contexts with pronounced gender pay and
employment gaps.
Both France and Spain have a strong focus on serv-
ices for small children, but a specific discourse and
policy measures are still lacking in order to promote
male participation in early childhood education and
care services or broader social services, despite the fact
that it has been identified as a positive resource to
enhance new ways for fatherhood in other countries
[Escobedo, 2008; Cameron and Moss, 2007]. Likewise
both countries exhibited similar levels ? around 40 % ?
of children under 3 years old in childcare formal serv-
ices. Whilst in both countries political parties and
women?s groups are much more orientated to child-
care, in France we find a dominant discourse involving
job creation and incentivizing a diversity of schemes
in contrast to Spain where childcare for children under
3 is mainly integrated in the educational system but
with about half of the provision remaining in fact out-
side educational regulation. This duality in the Spanish
childcare sector is due to decentralized policies and a
complex regulatory developments in the 0-3 that have
allowed the expansion of alternative and cheaper child-
care services, without public support and with quality
problems [Flaquer and Escobedo, 2009]. For children
older than 3 years, the French and Spanish educational
system guarantee universal coverage, but school hours
and terms do not always easily fit working parents
schedules.
In Spain from 2007 onwards leave policies are per-
ceived as a means to promote men?s take-up of care
work and to increase their participation in the upbring-
ing of children. Following the Nordic and in particular
the Icelandic experience, feminist elites are currently
proposing to develop a leave system with equal non
transferable paid entitlements both men and women as
a strategy to further male participation in the care of
children and to offset the stigmatization of women in
the labour market. Men?s movements in favour of new
The Social Politics of Fatherhood in Spain and France 129
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masculinities, paternities or demanding joint custody
after divorce seem to support this approach.
? Joint custody and shared residence
in Spain and France
In this section we assume that the increase in the
adoption of joint custody and shared residence after
divorce could be a good opportunity to develop new
fathering practices. We hope that a comparison of the
Spanish and French experiences in this respect can shed
light on this issue. The last available Eurostat data for
crude divorce rates show very similar figures for both
countries: 2.1 divorces per 1,000 populations.
Attitudes towards joint custody have changed in the
last two decades, especially as a result of the entry into
force of the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, and in many countries it has become the pre-
ferred arrangement being widely accepted as reflecting
the best interests of children of divorced parents
[Kurki-Suonio, 2000; Ryrstedt, 2003]. Traditional vis-
iting patterns and guidelines are, for the majority of
children, outdated, unnecessarily rigid, and restrictive,
and fail in both the short and long term to address
their best interests [Hunt and Roberts, 2004; Emery
et al., 2005; Kelly, 2007]. Sole custody most often
consists of the allocation of the care of children to the
mother, while the father takes exclusive (or a great part
of) responsibility for economic maintenance. Consid-
ering that this kind of arrangement stems from the
logic of the male breadwinner family system, it does
not seem to be very adequate in societies where most
mothers are doing paid work and an increasingly num-
ber of fathers are wishing to take an active part in the
care of their children.
There are various forms of joint custody and an
important distinction should be made between joint
legal and physical custody. Joint legal custody means
that both parents share the right and the obligation of
making major decisions about their child?s upbringing
(e.g. about schooling, religion, and health care). On
the other hand, joint physical custody means that the
child spends a significant amount of time with each
parent and his/her daily care is divided between both
parents to a considerable extent [Kurki-Suonio, 2000;
Halla, 2009]. While joint physical custody generally
involves legal custody, one cannot make the reverse
implication. Shared residence or alternating residence
are expressions that may be taken as synonyms of joint
physical custody, but each of them conveys peculiar
connotations [Granet, 2008].
Non-residence with a child is the single greatest
predictor of low father or mother involvement. Shared
parenting across households is likely to be more prev-
alent in countries where shared residence agreements
are more widespread following divorce or separation
[Flouri, 2005; The Fatherhood Institute, 2010]. Con-
sidering that research findings in Sweden indicate that
fathers? parental leave is associated with more contact
between non resident separated fathers and their chil-
dren [Duvander and Jans, 2008], we may wonder
whether in Spain and in France there is a certain cor-
relation between the generosity of parental leave enti-
tlements and the prevalence of shared parenting
arrangements after divorce.
Joint custody (custodia compartida) was introduced in
Spain by the 2005 Divorce Act, a most liberal and
no-fault divorce law that provided for a simplification
of proceedings involving direct access to divorce with-
out going through any prior formal separation. The
definition of joint custody given by the 2005 Divorce
Act is purely formal. Parents may agree (or the judge
may decide on behalf of children) that parental author-
ity will be exercised totally or partially by one of spou-
ses. Joint custody may be granted by the judge if
demanded by both parents, but also exceptionally if
requested by only one of them. In the latter case the
decision should only be made in the best interest of
the children after a favourable report from the public
official in charge of the protection of children (fiscal)
(Art. 92. 8). Joint custody will never be granted if the
judge suspects the existence of gender-based violence.
The law does not specify whether joint custody
must be interpreted only legally or both legally and
physically. No guidelines are given concerning who is
liable to pay for child maintenance or what residential
arrangements should be agreed in keeping with joint
custody.
In France shared residence (r?sidence en alternance or
r?sidence altern?e) of children from separated parents is
legally recognised from the 2002-305 Act (4 March
2002) on parental authority (article 372-2-9 of the
French Civil code). The law enables the judge to fix
alternating residence if requested by both parents (arti-
cle 373-2-9); in case of disagreement between father
and mother, the judge may still order it provisionally
for a certain period of time. However, even if there is
a consensus between both parents, the judge is free not
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to grant alternating residence if children?s interest is
not fully secured [Kesteman, 2007; Brunet, Kertudo
et Malsan, 2008]. Alternating residence is more than
simple joint physical custody, since it not only means
that the child spends significant amounts of time with
both parents, but supposes equal amounts in an alter-
nating manner, even if it does not systematically imply
strict shared physical custody. Alternating residence can
be seen as a sort of ?dual residence? [Granet, 2008].
While sociological research on shared residence in
France exhibits a long-standing tradition [Neyrand,
1994], in Spain it is just in the bud. In more than half
of divorces in Spain and France minor children are
involved (Spain: 53.3 %, 2009 ; France : 57 %, 2007).
In Spain joint custody is ordered by courts in about
one out of ten cases of divorces involving minor chil-
dren (9.6 %), but only in 6 % of cases of divorces
involving children both parents are due to pay main-
tenance [INE, 2010]. Data reported for France show
the 15 % of children whose parents divorced in 2007
used to live in alternating residence [Neyrand, 1994;
Kesteman, 2007], while 8 % lived with their fathers
and the rest with their mothers. While in Spain the
incidence of joint custody seems to be stable over time,
French data show an increase of alternating residence
during the 2000s: 11.5 % in 2003 and 13.5 % in 2006.
The more contentious is the divorce, the less frequent
is alternating residence. While the part of shared resi-
dence in divorces by mutual consent is 21.5 %, it is
only 11 % in accepted divorces and 4 % in divorces by
fault [Chaussebourg, Carrasco et Lermenier, 2009].
Although data for both countries are not strictly com-
parable, it can be suggested that the prevalence of
shared residence in France is not only much higher
than in Spain but it is clearly on the increase.
What are the main factors underlying the different
prevalence of joint custody in France and Spain? A
number of reasons may be adduced. In the first place,
the well-established tradition of divorce in France in
contrast to Spain, where it has only been in force for
three decades, may contribute to explain the higher
proclivity of the French to adopt new measures regard-
ing divorce. Secondly, although the participation of
women in the labour market has dramatically risen in
Spain in recent years, middle-aged French women have
still higher activity rates than the Spanish ones (83.6 %
versus 76.7 %), 6 and this, together with persistent
unemployment rates for women in Spain, probably
explains the existence of less gender-balanced couples
in this country.
Thirdly, and this is surely the most critical factor,
both the late development of the welfare state and the
low profile of family policy in Spain are associated with
more adverse consequences of divorce for women and
this is probably reinforcing traditional choices [Flaquer,
2008; Flaquer and Garriga, 2009]. Our thesis is that
differing outcomes between France and Spain are not
so much due to differences in the legal regulation of
divorce but in the social conditions and opportunities
provided by the characteristics of the productive and
welfare regimes. In fact, the comparison between the
legislation on divorce in France and Spain shows many
similarities. While it is true that access to divorce has
been simplified to a great extent in the 2005 Spanish
law, a number of other familialistic provisions have
been left in place such as the allocation of the family
dwelling to the family unit in which children live as a
rule of thumb and the obligation to pay maintenance
to the custodian parent (most generally the mother)
after the age majority of the child. We also find similar
provisions in the French law, but their long-term con-
sequences are not the same. It is important to bear in
mind that in Spain there is not only a high prevalence
of home ownership (about 85 % in Spain versus 63 %
in France), but that also youth transitions are much
longer than in France as young people tend to leave
home during their late twenties [Jurado, 2001; Cabr?
and M?denes, 2004]. The interplay of both features
contributes to a long perpetuation of gender imbalance
situations considering that the split of owner-occupied
dwellings is generally postponed until all children have
left home.
This is the backdrop to the debate on shared resi-
dence in Spain. Joint custody is presently a controver-
sial issue and a lively discussion in the Spanish media
has been opposing groups and associations for and
against it. In the state civil law no legal presumption
exists over the attribution of custody by the judge so
that joint custody is only to be granted if both parents
agree it. However, under certain circumstances joint
custody can be exceptionally decreed in case of disa-
greement between father and mother. However, the
legislators of some autonomous communities have
recently envisaged the establishment of joint custody
as the preferred arrangement even if parents fail to
agree over the matter. Thus, the parliament of Aragon
has passed a Law of Equality in Family Relations after
Divorce (2010) that institutes joint custody as the pref-
erential custody arrangement. Likewise, the new Cat-
alan Civil Code (2010) has also established joint
The Social Politics of Fatherhood in Spain and France 131
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custody as the standard although non-mandatory
arrangement. Other Northern regions are following
suit and the reform of state civil law is under study.
The drafting of new legislation has been accompa-
nied by pressure exerted by different fathers? associa-
tions, feminist groups and political parties in pursuit of
their ideological stances and in defence of their inter-
ests. Unfortunately little evidence-based research has
been used to give support to different views. One gets
the impression that maintaining or changing the status
quo to the proposers? own advantage are more impor-
tant drives than trying to achieve gender equity or
enhancing child well-being.
We assume that in Spain the debate on shared res-
idence has less to do with the promotion of shared
parenting and a new fatherhood than with the defence
of gender-based interests. Lines of cleavage among
activist groups or lobbies over the reform of divorce
laws tend often to reproduce the preservation of the
(or the fight against) status quo in terms of economic
interests between ex-spouses. The radicalization of the
debate between associations of separated fathers and
mothers has basically to do with the gender imbalance
sustained by current legislation that, while it overpro-
tects separated mothers in a social context of gender
inequality, it imposes a heavy and long-standing finan-
cial burden on separated fathers. Once again a wide
gap appears between gender egalitarian ideals expressed
by the majority of the Spanish population and legal,
social as well as economic constraints acting as barriers
preventing citizens from putting them into practice
[Xavier Roig?, this volume]. The comparison with
France is relevant here because it shows that a similar
civil legislation in a context of a different welfare
regime produces a friendlier attitude towards joint
custody.
Parental leave remains in both countries used by a
low proportion of atypical fathers while the fully paid
paternity leave scheme is widely used. Non-affordable
schemes cannot be considered in practice as a real
entitlement, particularly for fathers who are taking on
breadwinner roles in societal contexts with pro-
nounced gender pay and employment gaps. However
the incipient use of paternal leave indicates the emer-
gence of new fathering styles and more diverse house-
hold configurations. While the rhetoric of choice has
been developed in both countries in relation to mater-
nal employment and childcare, until now with better
results in France than in Spain, it remains to be seen
to what extent choice will also be extended to fathers.
In both countries atypical family arrangements and
part-time parental combinations may account for
future developments.
We are fully aware that we should not take for gran-
ted an equation between the adoption of joint custody
and the promotion of a new fatherhood. In certain
cases enforcing by courts joint custody and shared res-
idence could result in more conflict. At any rate, much
more research is needed in order to ascertain whether
new fatherhood is really promoted by the generaliza-
tion of joint custody by enquiring into the particular
circumstances and requirements that are conducive to
the most beneficial results for both parents and
children.
The rise of joint custody is promoting new male
demands as well as a more widespread use of leave and
of formal or informal work-family arrangements. A
higher paternal share of parental and care leave is
unambiguously highlighted as a virtuous gender-
equality development in European policies. Therefore
we suggest to do more in-depth research on how
divorced and lone fathers use work-family arrange-
ments (parental leave, leave to take care of sick children,
flexible time arrangements at work, or homeworking),
especially focusing on how they develop specific strat-
egies and use profiles, in different labour market con-
texts as well as in various production and welfare
regime frameworks. ?
Notes
1. The research presented in this article
has been conducted in the context of the
research programme ANRPATERNITE, projet
ANR-08-JCJC-0057-01.
2. Eurostat data.
3. Eurostat, data for year 2008.
4. Own calculation based on Social Secur-
ity and INE data; birth data is provisional for
2010.
5. For detailed and updated explanations
of leave schemes available in France, Spain as
well other countries, see the Annual reviews of
the Leave Policies and Research Expert Net-
work available from 2005 onwards [MOSS and
KOCOURKOV?, 2010] at www.leavenetwork.
org.
6. Eurostat data for 2009. Middle aged
women stands for females aged 25-54 years.
132 Anna Escobedo, Llu?s Flaquer, Lara Navarro-Varas
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ABSTRACT
The Social Politics of Fatherhood in Spain and France: A Comparative Analysis of Parental Leave and Shared
Residence
The article provides a comparative analysis of policy developments on leaves for fathers and joint custody in Spain and France in
the last decade. These two types of measures have been selected because they are both widely recognised as main instruments to
promote new fathering styles and consequently more gender equality in the European Union. While the rhetoric of choice has been
developed in both countries in relation to maternal employment and childcare, with better results in France than in Spain, it remains
to be seen to what extent choice will also be extended to fathers.
Keywords: Fatherhood. Family. Comparative social policy. Parental leave. Joint custody.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Sozialpolitik und Vaterschaft in Spanien und Frankreich : Eine vergleichende Analyse von Elternzeit und
Zusammenleben
Die Entwicklung der franz?sischen und spanischen Familienpolitik (Stichwort : Elternzeit oder gemeinsame Kinderbetreuung)
der letzten zehn Jahre wird in diesem Artikel vergleichend analysiert. Beide Ma?nahmen gelten als wichtige Instrumente der
Verbreitung neuer Elternmodelle und in Konsequenz als Faktoren gr??erer Gleichheit zwischen Frauen und M?nnern in der
Europ?ischen Union. Da sich die Familienpolitik in beiden L?ndern vor allem an berufst?tige Frauen richtet ? derzeit mit gr??erem
Erfolg in Frankreich als in Spanien ? so bleibt vorerst noch abzuwarten welche Wahlm?glichkeit sich den V?tern erschlie?en wird.
Stichworter : Vaterschaft. Familie. Vergleichende Sozialpolitik. Elternzeit. Gemeinsame Kinderbetreuung.
134 Anna Escobedo, Llu?s Flaquer, Lara Navarro-Varas
Ethnologie fran?aise, XLII, 2012, 1