This thesis offers a normative rethinking of parenting leave as a means of
transforming the sexual division of labour within the family and facilitating
substantive equality between the sexes and between groups of parents with
different sexual and/or gender identities and family forms in the EU. The thesis
normatively critiques and reconstructs the EU parenting leave framework,
consisting of maternity leave under the Pregnant Workers Directive and paternity
and parental leave under the Work-Life Balance Directive. To do so, it enriches
socio-legal policy research with feminist legal theory. The thesis first makes an
original contribution to feminist legal theory by examining the meaning of equality
through a theoretical refinement of Fredman’s four-dimensional model of
substantive equality. It then turns this model into an analytical method by
distilling from it methodological and normative principles for the purpose of
critiquing and reconstructing parenting leave law and policy. The thesis demonstrates that rather than facilitating substantive equality, EU law reinforces inequalities between parents: it perpetuates the gendered parental role stereotypes epitomised by the breadwinner-caregiver dichotomy, socially excludes parents who do not conform to the heteronormative nuclear family ideal, and entrenches socio-economic disadvantages by devaluing pregnancy and parenthood. Employing two Nordic parenting leave frameworks as current ‘best practice’ case studies of policy models which transform the sexual division of labour within the family, the thesis then devises a transformative parenting leave model for the EU. This model is an original contribution to socio-legal
parenting leave policy research. By universalising the ‘feminine’ characteristic of
caregiving as a gender-neutral parenthood norm, the transformative model
deconstructs the sexual division of labour within the family and thus facilitates
substantive equality between the sexes and between parents regardless of their
sexual and/or gender identity and family form.
| Date of Award | 17 Dec 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - University Of Strathclyde
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| Sponsors | University of Strathclyde |
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| Supervisor | Rebecca Zahn (Supervisor), Lynsey Mitchell (Supervisor) & Emily Rose (Supervisor) |
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