‘She has mellowed me into the idea of SPL’: unpacking relational resources in UK couples’ discussions of Shared Parental Leave take-up

This article undertakes an in-depth examination into how two couples negotiate the sharing of parental leave, to understand how ‘relational resources’ may be drawn on in transforming gendered practices. The couples are selected from a longitudinal study of 42 first-time parents taking various combinations of leave. Drawing on a ‘listening guide’ approach, I analyse the interactions observed in couple interviews with a couple that shares, and another couple that does not share leave. I show that in trying to convince their partners to take leave, both women draw on gendered scripts, either in how the interaction is managed, or by the discourses that are drawn on. Moreover, fathers’ work context strongly mediates negotiations, as all participants judge this to trump other considerations regarding leave, reinforcing men’s attachment to the workplace. More research is needed to understand how these process shape divisions of paid and unpaid work in the long term.