Aim Of The Evaluation

The purpose of this evaluation is to better understand the dynamics of decision-making and experiences before, during and after a period of parental leave under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 (the Act) and test whether, and how, the Act is meeting its overall objectives. Parental leave is a particularly complex and often contentious area of public policy.^[1] Parental leave policy is relevant not only to parents and children, but also to employers, co-workers and the wider society and economy. While parental leave affects a wide range of individuals and organisations, this evaluation focuses on the experiences of three groups: women who have babies or adopt them; fathers or other partners of these women; and employers.

This report begins with a brief discussion of background economic and social trends that affect thinking about parental leave. This is followed by a summary of New Zealand's parental leave policies, after which there is an outline of policies in other similar countries. The report then outlines the methodologies used in the three phases of the research. The research findings then follow this. Reflecting the distinct phases of the research, the research findings are presented in three main sections. The first covers the environment scan. The second covers qualitative research and the final section focuses on the main quantitative study. Within both the qualitative research and the large-scale third stage quantitative survey, parents (mothers and fathers) and employers were interviewed. Therefore, there are separate sections dealing with the responses of all these groups. Due to the small sample size, only bi-variate analysis is undertaken. As the environment scan and qualitative research were conducted to inform the quantitative survey, this report focuses on the findings and implications of the quantitative stage. The three studies gathered a considerable amount of information and this report inevitably cannot cover all the results in detail. A range of further tables are available on the Department of Labour website.^[2]