The South revisited: The division of labor and family outcomes in Italy and Spain

Social provisions and market services assist families in balancing production and reproduction, so that women’s employment need not be associated with lower fertility. Yet men’s participation in childcare has not kept pace with women’s rising labor force participation. Here, the effect of men’s childcare hours on the likelihood of second births is analyzed for Italian and Spanish couples using the European Community Household Panel. While different sources of care, such as another household adult and private childcare, significantly increase the odds of second births, so, too, among the youngest cohort of Italian couples, does a father’s greater time in childcare. This suggests that even in a country with strong cultural support for the male breadwinner model, this model is family sub-optimal in modern economies.