Introduction or preface

There have been important changes in many European countries regarding parenting policy-making (OECD 2011). Paternity leave is one of this measures that have been implemented or developed in the last years. The Spanish paternity leave consists of fifteen days off-work fully paid after childbirth. Due to its recent implementation in 2007 we still do not know the percentage of paternity leave-takers and which factors foster the use of paternity leave. The aim of this paper is to evaluate which factors foster or constrain the use of paternity leave in Spain. Through a dataset of four thousand people, of which six hundred are potential paternity leave-takers, we have analysed which are the effects that working conditions, education, and gender role values have on the use of paternity leave. Our main findings are that being self-employed hampers fathers from taking paternity leave and having egalitarian roles related to childcare and family-oriented values have a positive significant relation with the use of paternity leave in Spain.