Take it or leave it: how maternal leave duration affects societal perceptions of women in Germany and Israel

This research investigates how the duration of parental leave taken by working mothers influences ‘ideal worker’ and ‘good mother’ norms perceptions in two distinct cultural and policy contexts: Germany (N = 262; main activity: 65.9% university students, 26.7% paid work) and Israel (N = 504; main activity: 100% university students, of whom 79.0% also engaged in paid work). In experimental online studies, participants evaluated a fictitious mother based on a vignette. Leave length was experimentally manipulated across four conditions: 4, 6, 12, and 36 months (the latter only in Germany). The results yielded similar trends in both countries. Mothers are more likely to be viewed as better parents if they take the longest leave offered, and as better workers if they take short periods of leave. Nevertheless, our results show that in both countries, the decision to take parental leave of any given length does not substantially harm evaluations toward working mothers.