Is It Daddy Time Yet? Trends and Variation in Men's Employment Hours Around Childbirth: 1989-2020

Scholars continue to debate the progress of the gender revolution. Some argue that the gender revolution is stalled, whereas others see an emerging second half marked by men's increased involvement in the home. Using longitudinally linked monthly data from the 1989-2020 Current Population Survey, I show that U.S. fathers from more recent cohorts worked fewer hours around the time of a childbirth than earlier cohorts-evidence consistent with the second half of the gender revolution. The magnitude of change is modest but is larger among college-educated men, men with a college-educated partner, and men in dual-earner households. Changes across cohorts are entirely accounted for by men's increasing reports of parental leave usage. Findings shed light on the changing relationship between parenthood and work for men and suggest continued steps toward gender equality.