If only women take parental leave, then employer attitudes will, consciously or not, consider parental leave an extra 'cost' attached to hiring women. Sweden found that this remained true even when the parental leave was explicitly made available for both parents to take. Among other reasons, making some parental leave only available for fathers is intended to further encourage fathers to take leave, until in theory people think of parental leave as a gender-neutral option.

https://freepolicybriefs.org/2024/02/05/fathers-parental-lea...).