Justice principles in the allocation of parental leave within couples

Objective: The study investigates which distributive justice principles apply when allocating parental leave between mothers and fathers. Background: Despite policies promoting gender equality, parental leave uptake and duration in Germany remain unequally distributed and highly gendered. Existing research has primarily focused on the determinants of parental leave uptake, while less attention has been paid to perceptions of what constitutes a just allocation of parental leave between parents. Method: Using a multifactorial survey experiment, the study manipulated gender, income, job position, and job satisfaction in randomized vignettes of heterosexual dual-earner couples (N = 3,012 vignette evaluations). Respondents were asked to allocate 12 months of parental leave fairly between the parents. Results: Gender had only a modest effect on parental leave allocations, with respondents allocating 5.4 out of 12 months to fathers for the distribution to be perceived as just. Instead, respondents allocated substantially fewer parental leave months (4.4 out of 12 months) to fathers with stronger work attachments and income advantages (i.e., highly satisfied with their jobs, managers, and higher earners). However, these effects were not gender-specific and similarly applied to “female breadwinner” scenarios. Conclusion: The findings suggest that justice perceptions regarding parental leave are shaped less strongly by traditional gender roles than by occupational characteristics and income differences. At the same time, justice perceptions and actual parental leave behavior in Germany do not necessarily align due to structural and contextual constraints.