Do Men Care about Childcare? Women's Relative Resources and Men's Preferences for Work–Family Reconciliation Policies.

This article examines how women's relative resources within households influence men's preferences for work–family reconciliation policies, focusing on subsidized childcare and the gender-egalitarian splitting of paid parental leave. Using regression analysis of survey data from twenty OECD countries in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2012 module on Family and Changing Gender Roles IV, the study finds that men in dual-earner and college-educated homogamous households are more likely to support subsidized childcare, while men's support for splitting parental leave is significantly associated with women's educational attainment rather than their relative income. The findings suggest that men's policy preferences are shaped not only by economic considerations but also by women's education, reflecting household bargaining dynamics and possibly assortative mating. The study highlights the importance of considering male preferences and household contexts in the politics of reconciliation policies and notes limitations related to data on partners and couple types.