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Measuring the Effectiveness of the Military Parental Leave Program in the U.S. Army

 

Maj. Caitlin M. Withenbury, U.S. Army
Maj. Alexander T. Withenbury, U.S. Army

 

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Since 4 January 2023, members of the Department of Defense (DOD; now the Department of War) and the U.S. Army have been privileged with the opportunity to take twelve weeks of parental leave following the birth or placement of a child. This policy gives families the versatility to take this time all at once or to break up the twelve weeks into increments of at least seven days across the first year of placement/life. Since the policy’s implementation, there has not been any formal analysis for the U.S. Army. The purpose of this study is to examine the utilization of the Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP). Is the MPLP being executed in a standardized manner across the U.S. Army, specifically with respect to personal attributes, geographic location, and unit type?

A review of the literature asserts that standardized implementation of parental leave, not specifically for the military, is vital to its success while generating positive outcomes for organizations, their employees, and their families.¹ Inequitable implementation that favors one demographic over another tends to undermine the policy’s goals and can continue organizational cultural gaps. Equitable implementation of parental leave policies also instills and facilitates a stronger work-life balance, habitually proven to increase workplace productivity and employee satisfaction.

Personal attributes such as sex, income level, relationship dynamics, education, workplace experience, workplace status, and age all influence how individuals choose to take parental leave in other sectors of the workforce and even in other countries.² There are known differences in parental leave utilization across sex, education level, job type, organizational culture, geography, and relationship dynamics of parents. Women tend to take more parental leave than men. Higher educated, higher income families tend to take more parental leave to a point of perceived diminished commitment. Many employees perceive a “commitment penalty” for taking full advantage of parental leave benefits, fearing that taking time to care for their families will negatively impact their perceived loyalty or commitment to their job.³ Organizational cultures that promote family-friendly policies and demonstrate genuine care for employee well-being show higher rates of parental leave utilization. Overall, paid parental leave affords parents less stress and anxiety both during the chosen leave period and as they return to work. This reduction in stress and anxiety allows parents more time to facilitate childcare arrangements and increases their mental presence upon returning to the workplace.⁴

The MPLP gives soldiers and their families the opportunity to create strong familial foundations during the addition of a new family member that will serve them during times of sacrifice in the future. A solid foundation of resilience is necessary when, not if, families are called upon to test that foundation and practice resiliency during deployments, exercises, and times of high operational demand. There has always been, and always will be, a partnership between the U.S. Army and the families of the soldiers who serve. The U.S. Army maintains an “unlimited liability contract” between each of its soldiers and their families.⁵ As Gens. John A. Wickham Jr. and Eric K. Shinseki described, the Army can only meet its missions, readiness, retention, and recruitment requirements if it upholds the contracts it has made with soldiers and families.⁶ It is undeniable that the lethality of the warfighter is directly enabled by the health of their family and support system. Family-friendly policies that support both soldier and family work to strengthen the support system, the soldier, the U.S. Army, and the Nation.

The development of the MPLP is an incredible step in supporting the welfare of U.S. Army soldiers and their families during the adjustment period of adding new family members. Prior to 1972, pregnant soldiers were separated from service. The first form of parental leave did not emerge until 1998 with the introduction of six weeks of nonchargeable postpartum leave for birthing parents.⁷ In 2009, the Army introduced paternity leave of ten days and only included married heterosexual fathers.⁸ In 2013, maternity leave increased from six weeks to twelve weeks, and paternity leave increased from ten days to fourteen days.⁹ In 2017, the policy extended to unmarried soldiers and same-sex couples, and removed sex as a parental distinction. It also added the labels of “primary” and “secondary caregiver,” offering six weeks and twenty-one days, respectively.¹⁰ In 2019, the time available to take parental leave extended to the first year of life rather than immediately following a birth.¹¹ In 2023, the DOD complied with the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act with the publication of Defense-Type Memorandum 2023-001, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program”; and the U.S. Army followed with the publication of All Army Activities Message 007/2023, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP) Implementation Guidance.”¹² The most recent update to this policy can be found in DOD Instruction 1327.06, Military Leave, Liberty, and Administrative Absence.¹³

The current DOD Parental Leave Policy standardizes parental leave across all services to twelve weeks of paid leave for both birthing and nonbirthing parents to be used within the first year of birth/placement.¹⁴ The policy changed the nomenclature of leave from maternity/paternity or primary/secondary caregiver leave to “Parental Leave” for all DOD organizations.¹⁵ This expanded the aperture for this benefit to apply to all types of family compositions to include same-sex parents, adoptive parents, surrogacy, and both married and nonmarried parents. Marriage status, sexual orientation, sex, and birthing status do not dictate the duration of this leave—parent is the only requirement.

The twelve weeks can be used all at once or in increments of seven or more days. If requested in one continuous twelve-week period, the only person who can deny the request is the first general officer in the soldier’s chain of command.¹⁶ Incremental parental leave submissions are approved by the unit commander. If a unit commander and the soldier cannot agree on incremental leave as submitted, the unit must afford a soldier twelve weeks of continuous leave. Routine execution of the MPLP dictates that all parental leave must be taken within the first year of a child’s life. The updated Army policy allows for extensions to be granted for circumstances that exceed ninety or more days to include deployments, a resident professional military education course, temporary duty, or in-patient hospitalization. The secretary of the Army can approve additional exceptions.¹⁷

This change is a substantial departure from previous policies and standardizes parental leave across the DOD, and most importantly, it invests in the welfare and well-being of the soldiers and families to enable long-term, department-wide success. This study aims to determine if leave within the MPLP is being taken in a standardized manner across the U.S. Army. The answers to these research questions involve soldiers and leaders at the lowest level but matter to senior Army leaders who are focused on maintaining readiness and improving lethality.

Methods

This study used a quantitative secondary data analysis of U.S. Army leave data collected through 28 October 2022. The deidentified data provided by Headquarters, Department of the Army Personnel Division (G-1) included all leave submissions from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2024. Variables analyzed (see figure 1) include rank, sex, location, unit, type of parental leave taken (continuous or increments), and number of days total taken. There are limitations inherent to the data sources as the information received is only as valid as the information input by the user and approval authority. This study used the data to create a picture of the population of soldiers taking parental leave and how personal attributes, geography, and unit types within the Army are utilizing parental leave.

This analysis helped to gain insights into the differences in implementation of the MPLP. This study used the t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis Test, Wilcoxon Rank-Sum, Levene’s Test for Homogeneity of Variance, and chi-squared test to analyze the data. The results of these tests were then used to determine if soldiers of different ranks, sex, locations, and units were utilizing parental leave in similar ways or if there are major differences in days of leave taken or type of leave taken, either incremental or continuous. Each test produced a p-value that indicates whether there exists a statistically significant difference across the variables analyzed. The specific data analysis was completed using R Studio and Microsoft Excel.

Following data cleaning, the total number of soldiers who took leave in the dataset was 47,354. This study excluded any entries with leave greater than eighty-four days total, any leave submission less than seven days, and any incomplete parental leave plan in accordance with the policy.¹⁸ Once entries meeting the exclusion criteria were removed, the final dataset included 46,339 soldiers.

Table 1 lists summary statistics from the entire population of leave submissions. Utilization is simply the average days taken across the force divided by the maximum allowable days of parental leave (84).

There are statistically significant differences across the variables analyzed indicating that parental leave was not utilized in a standardized or equitable manner across the U.S. Army since the implementation of the MPLP on 1 January 2023. Almost all variables analyzed showed statistically significant p-values from their statistical tests. P-value significance indicates the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis.¹⁹ For example, a null hypothesis may be that there is no difference in the average number of leave days taken among the two sexes. Therefore, if one finds a statistically significant result, rejecting the null hypothesis would imply that there is a difference in the average number of leave days taken among the two sexes.

If the p-value is below the critical value, then the variables analyzed are statistically significant.²⁰ The critical value for the tests chosen was 0.05, meaning that any p-value less than 0.05 is a statistically significant result. The p-value is probability, and since probability can never be truly zero, exceedingly small numbers indicate strong statistical significance. A threshold of 0.05 is often used for statistical significance to say that in only one out of twenty instances the result is by chance rather than causation. The following sections will dissect and explain the results of each variable analyzed further.

Sex. This study first aimed to determine if days of parental leave differed across sex and rank. Sex was defined in IPPS-A as male or female. IPPS-A derives sex for a service member from the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System. After data cleaning, this study analyzed the leave submissions for 6,738 females and 40,836 males. Levene’s test and a t test were used to determine if differences existed in the variance and the mean. Both showed a statistically significant difference in leave taken between males and females in the dataset (see table 2).

This study also calculated the median number of days taken by each sex to understand the potential impact of outliers within the dataset. Table 2 also shows the medians for females (84) and males (52). The median of eighty-four days for females means that over half of the population of females took the maximum number of parental leave days available. The Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test is often used to compare distributions between two groups and can be applied to medians. The test determined that the difference in medians by sex was also statistically significant.

Beyond looking at the mean and median for sex, this study also analyzed the percentage of each population who took a continuous block of leave to determine if differences existed in how each sex chose to take parental leave: all at once or incrementally. The variable of sex is binary, meaning that there are only two categories, male and female. Binary variables can use the chi-squared test of independence, the proportion test, or Fisher’s exact test. Each of these tests determined that there is a statistically significant difference in how each sex uses parental leave. As shown in table 2, on average, females are more likely to take one continuous period of parental leave and take more total days of leave while males are on average less likely to take one continuous period of leave and take fewer total parental leave days. This study will continue to analyze the total number of parental leave days taken and type of leave, either continuous or incremental, for the remaining variables.

Rank. Next, this study analyzed rank as both individual pay grades and in categories. This rank analysis combined ranks of the same pay grade. For this dataset, the ranks of specialist (SPC) and corporal (CPL) were combined as well as first sergeant and master sergeant, and sergeant major and command sergeant major. The presence of low-density utilization for some ranks drove the decision to also analyze rank within categories (e.g., there are eleven chief warrant officer fives in the dataset).

The mean and median values for total leave days taken were generally lower for higher-ranking soldiers and generally higher for junior ranking soldiers. Figure 2 shows average days of leave taken in ascending order and figure 3 shows the median number of days of leave taken in ascending order. As shown in both figures, higher-ranking soldiers took less leave than junior ranking soldiers. The ranks that took the most leave were also the ranks that have larger populations within the dataset and are the highest population pay grades across the DOD.²¹

Looking at the median, the highest value was the SPC/CPL population with eighty-four days. This indicates that over half of the population of SPC/CPLs took the maximum number of parental leave days. On the opposite end of the spectrum, over half of the population of colonels took twenty-four or fewer days of leave.

As shown in figure 4, higher ranks of the dataset were, on average, more likely to take incremental leave rather than a continuous period of parental leave. This corresponds to what was shown previously: those that break up their leave, on average, take less leave. So, this study shows that higher ranks typically take less leave and typically break up their leave more frequently.

An interesting insight in this analysis is what may be happening with lieutenants and privates. Both first lieutenants (1LT) and privates (PV1) show lower median and mean leave values than their second lieutenant (2LT) and private (PV2) counterparts. These ranks are close in pay grade but differ functionally in the Army. 2LT is primarily an entry-level officer rank that exists in training units and for a short amount of time in operational units before promotion to 1LT. The school and training environment of a 2LT may facilitate higher days of leave and higher utilization of continuous leave; whereas the 1LT rank with lower leave days and continuous leave utilization rate may be indicative of officers at their first unit of assignment that are not afforded the same opportunities. The reasons for this discrepancy are unknown and could be due to exemptions unavailable in the data, but it could be due to unit climate or culture.

The difference between PV1 and PV2 may be less straightforward since there are a portion of PV1 soldiers who exist in entry-level training organizations such as basic training, but PV1 is also a rank of consequence if a soldier is punished under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Although unsubstantiated from this study, the lower mean and median leave days taken may be indicative of the status of a soldier within this rank as a “substandard” soldier following adverse action. Further analysis of individual soldier leave entries and unit identification codes could confirm or deny these assumptions.

This study also analyzed ranks in categories defined in table 3. Some ranks were underrepresented relative to others in this dataset (e.g., chief warrant officer five). Grouping ranks into categories potentially mitigated any impact the lower density ranks could have on results and allowed for more general conclusions to be made about categories of rank rather than individual ranks.

Rank category analysis yielded comparable results reinforcing the initial trends identified in individual rank analysis. In general, higher-ranking soldiers took less leave. Figure 5 shows the mean of each rank category. Shown in figure 6, the median days of leave by rank category showed similar trends as the mean by category and in the individual rank analysis. Similar to the individual rank analysis, over half of the junior enlisted category took eighty-three days or more of leave, which is nearly the maximum number of days afforded for parental leave: eighty-four. Comparatively, over half of field-grade officers took thirty or fewer days of leave.

This difference in leave utilization observed across rank categories may be due to higher-ranking soldiers falling under an exemption to the MPLP and are authorized an extension to the 365-day window to use parental leave. Extension and exemption data were not available or included in this study’s analysis.

Shown in figure 7, the rate of continuous leave by rank category demonstrated the same trends as the individual rank analysis. The more senior a soldier, the less likely they are to take uninterrupted or one continuous period of parental leave. This continues to support the fact that populations who take more continuous leave take more leave overall, and those who take incremental leave take less overall.

Location. Next, this study aimed to determine if days of parental leave differed by geography/location. There were statistically significant differences found across mean, median, and variance of parental leave days, and the rate of uninterrupted leave taken across different locations. Installations with fewer than fifteen leave submissions were excluded from this specific analysis to not skew results. After applying exclusion criteria for location analysis, this study analyzed 122 unique locations using Levene’s Test for Homogeneity of Variance, an ANOVA for mean, the Kruskal-Wallis Test for median, and a chi-squared test for continuous versus incremental leave. This analysis showed that p-values for variance, mean, median, and rate of continuous leave taken were statistically significant, indicating a rejection of the null hypothesis and therefore a difference in how parental leave is taken across location.

The large quantity of unique locations made visual depiction difficult. For this reason, the top and bottom fifteen are graphically depicted in figures 8–13. This cross section of the data allows for the analysis of trends across location. The low utilization of leave days may not be indicative of a problem at those locations but may be a product of a higher instance of exemptions or extensions to the 365-day utilization time period. It is worth noting that these locations (both highest and lowest) remain consistently high/low across both the mean and median number of leave days taken.

Looking at figure 11, some installations have over half of their population taking the maximum number of leave days afforded. While this study does not attempt to understand the why behind this, it is noteworthy and a recommendation for further analysis to determine what factors allowed these locations to achieve this. Interestingly, that list includes Fort Hood, Texas, which contains a U.S. Army Forces Command division.

Consistent with sex and rank, installations with the highest rates of continuous leave are also installations that were found to have the highest number of average and median days of leave taken as shown in figures 9 and 11. Location results continued to support the idea that soldiers who take continuous leave also end up taking, on average, more leave.

This study also analyzed usage by soldier location in the continental United States versus outside the continental United States. This analysis, however, did not indicate statistically significant differences in parental leave utilization, while analysis across unique locations did show statistically significant differences. The data analyzed does not indicate why differences exist, but the identification of these differences and which installations use parental leave at higher rates and lower rates could be useful for leaders and could help inform further analysis and inquiry. Further analysis of demographics at each location may also provide information about why some locations use more or less parental leave. Sex and rank analysis by location can help inform likelihood of extensions and can also indicate justification for further analysis of parental leave trends and the factors that influence soldier utilization.

Unit type. Finally, this study aimed to determine if days of parental leave differed across unit types. This study defined unit types as major commands (MACOM), MACOM category, and then within each category (Army command, Army Service component command, and direct report unit). It then sought to determine if statistically significant differences exist across unit types. This study used similar statistical tests as with previous variables. Statistically significant differences were found across MACOMs, MACOM categories, and within MACOM categories. The only exceptions were the variance of MACOM category and within the MACOMs categorized as Army commands.

Analysis of individual MACOMs showed statistically significant differences in parental leave utilization across the mean, median, and variance. There were fifty-one MACOMs present in the dataset. Figures 14 and 15 show MACOMs in order of average and median days of parental leave taken. These MACOMs should be further evaluated to assess disposition of rank and sex. Low utilization of parental leave could be indicative of a preponderance of the population falling within an exemption qualifying for extension beyond 365 days to use parental leave. Also, MACOMs with low utilization may be disproportionately high in rank compared to other MACOMs, which would align with the findings earlier for rank: those of more senior rank, on average, take less leave. The cultural impact on individuals’ decision to use or not use parental leave in these MACOMs is unknown but a recommendation for further study.

Rate of continuous leave taken by MACOM showed results similar to the mean and the median (see figure 16). The same trend seen across sex, rank, and location holds true for MACOM as the indicator of unit type. The MACOMs with higher percentages of continuous leave, on average, took more parental leave.

MACOM categories had statistically significant differences amongst the mean, median, and variance. Each of the MACOM categories was also analyzed and the MACOMs within each category were also found to be statistically significant. The MACOM category analysis and analysis within each category make comparative analysis more digestible but are omitted for the purpose of this article. Similarly, analysis within each MACOM category yielded statistically significant differences indicating that MACOMs within each MACOM category utilize parental leave differently.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The U.S. Army MPLP is a tremendous step forward in improving the quality of life and stability of Army families. The program affords all soldiers flexibility to devote eighty-four days to their families as they encounter significant life transition and change. This is an investment in time that will pay dividends in future resilience as the U.S. Army continues to place high demands on the force including their families. Parental leave has become a distinguishing factor among employers of the civilian workforce across the globe, significantly increasing commitment, retention, and recruitment of more devoted employees. Offering parental leave and facilitating maximal utilization is of even more importance to the U.S. Army as it asks an “unlimited liability contract” of its soldiers and their families.²² Supporting parental leave is not a morale and welfare issue, it is a readiness and lethality issue.

This study showed that the MPLP implementation is not standardized across the force through the lenses of sex, rank, location, and unit type. The lack of standardization suggests that there is room to improve MPLP policy implementation. Successfully supporting parental leave through standardized implementation is vital for the well-being and mental health of soldiers and their families, crucial for soldier retention, and contributes to the overall strength and readiness of the force. Further research and efforts are necessary to refine the policy, improve leader support, and investigate the underlying reasons for these differences to ensure the MPLP and the U.S. Army achieve their full potential.

On average, soldiers only use 65 percent of the parental leave days afforded to them. The U.S. Army must look internally to determine if the policy itself is unattainable and requires adjustment or if the climate and mindset of organizational leaders must shift to facilitate successful utilization.

The data cleaning process indicated that clarifications in parental leave policy and execution are necessary. This was evident in the number of leave submissions less than seven days and greater than eighty-four days.

Soldiers who take incremental leave, on average, take fewer total parental leave days in the first year of birth/placement of a child compared to soldiers who take continuous leave. Soldiers of higher rank, on average, take less leave than junior soldiers. Male soldiers, on average, take less leave than female soldiers. Analyzing the effect of higher-ranking soldiers/leaders using more (or less) parental leave in a unit on junior soldiers’ parental leave utilization in the same unit could be another opportunity for future study.

Implications. The benefits of paid parental leave are numerous and impact children, parents, organizations that employ families, the economy, and the country. Each plays an important role and underlines the importance of implementing and facilitating successful paid parental leave policies. It may be obvious that paid parental leave benefits parents, but what is not as obvious is that it may be vital to their personal well-being and health. A parent’s personal well-being and welfare directly impacts the well-being and health of their child/children.²³ The well-being and mental health of parents is so vital to the Nation that former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published a public health advisory on the “Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents” on 28 August 2024.²⁴ Surgeon general advisories are published to inform the public on “significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action [emphasis added by authors].”²⁵ Murthy reports that parents who feel their role as a parent is culturally marginalized have significantly more stress than other parents. Creating an environment that does not marginalize the parental role is crucial to fostering a work environment that contributes to increased workplace productivity and personal well-being.²⁶ In 2022, 40.7 percent of the soldiers in the U.S. Army were parents.²⁷ Of those nearly 460,000 soldiers, 12,450 of them were first-time parents.²⁸ That is the size of an average U.S. Army division. The U.S. Army can impact the transformational experience of parenthood for these soldiers influencing whether they flourish in this time of transition or motivate them to seek other means of employment and a lifestyle that will.

The Army is a subculture of society and has the prestigious opportunity to contribute to the community that embraces and supports parents as they navigate parenthood, thereby impacting local communities and the strength of a nation. Supporting soldiers means that the Army must consider how it can best support parents. The impacts of doing so are vital to the welfare of the current and future force as well as the Nation that supports the military. Of the 40.7 percent of Army soldiers in 2022 that were parents, 87 percent of those parents were fathers.²⁹ Despite the differences found in utilization amongst sex in this study, supporting parental leave is not a sex issue, it is a family issue that impacts every soldier whether they have children or not because it impacts those that they work with, alongside, and for. Ignoring the well-being and mental health factors of nearly half of the formation is not an option.

Standardized execution of parental leave is in the U.S. Army’s best interest to retain the best talent possible in support of a premiere lethal fighting force. Conducted annually since 2021, the Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey (DACES) polls both soldiers who are active duty and will continue service and those who are scheduled to leave active duty within 180 days of taking the survey. The survey attempts to determine why soldiers discontinue service in the Army or leave. This survey is unique because it collects on both the sentiments of soldiers who have made the decision to leave the U.S. Army and the disposition of soldiers who continue to serve and the factors that may influence their exit. In 2021, DACES found that three of the top five reasons soldiers choose or would choose to leave the U.S. Army are family related, specifically “family plans for children,” either to have a child for the first time or to add to their family. Nearly half (47.2 percent) of the over 37,000 soldiers surveyed in 2021 considered “impact of Army life on family plans for children” an extremely important or somewhat important reason to leave the U.S. Army.³⁰ This sentiment to leave service due to lack of support of family planning has not diminished with time. DACES conducted in 2022 and 2023 continue to place family well-being and “family plans for children” among the top five reasons to leave the U.S. Army.³¹ While the MPLP is not the only factor that contributes to this sentiment or decision, it is a no-cost policy already in place that, if supported in the right manner, could impact retention and lethality of the force.

Recommendations. Recommendations for improving parental leave are generated from both a review of the literature and the data analysis. The surgeon general recommends that employers offer flexible parental, medical, and sick leave options as well as access to childcare.³² The U.S. Army can support this recommendation through continuing to refine the MPLP to optimize flexibility and continue its efforts to provide available and quality childcare on installations. Murthy also recommends that supervisors receive training in stress management and promote family friendly climates conducive to the simultaneous success of both career and parental roles. The surgeon general also emphasizes the need to support and provide access to mental health programs.³³ The U.S. Army already has a medical infrastructure that supports mental health treatment. Leaders need to continue to emphasize and support these programs with all soldiers but particularly with parents surrounding their parental leave periods and their return to work following a parental leave period.

To provide optimal flexibility to soldiers surrounding their decisions regarding parental leave, extending the 365-day time period to take parental leave is a recommendation supported by the data analysis and is something parental leave policies across other countries and their military forces have adopted.

In January 2025, Oklahoma Congresswoman Stephanie Bice proposed H.R. 656, Protecting Military Parental Leave Evaluations Act. As of April 2025, this ongoing legislation proposes adjustment of parental leave across all services to expand the time period of utilization from 365 days to two years from the child’s birth date/placement.³⁴ The data analysis and findings supports H.R. 656’s proposal due to the low utilization rate within the current policy’s requirement to use parental leave within the first year if not approved for extension under an exemption.³⁵

This study aimed to determine utilization of the MPLP across sex, rank, location, and unit type of the U.S. Army. It is the first study to analyze the MPLP since its publication in January 2023. This study did not analyze why differences exist, and the analysis of the soldier experience associated with parental leave utilization is a recommendation for future study. Understanding that differences exist in leave utilization is a great start. However, understanding why differences exist will help better inform policy changes and leaders on how they can improve their cultures and climates to best support execution of the MPLP.

Areas for future quantitative analysis include analysis of leave disapprovals and comparison with deployment cycles, also known as the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model (ReARMM), and analysis of exemptions and extensions to the policy. The data included leave submissions approval status but was not a part of this study. This information was not used to gain insight into the types of submissions and adjustments that were made across the force during the policy’s first two years of execution. Analysis of what types of units disapprove leave and for what reasons paired with exemptions is an area for further study that would indicate whether the MPLP exemptions and leave denials are occurring in a standardized fashion, or if there are certain organizations that tend to grant these exemptions more than others.

This article is derived from Caitlin M. Withenbury’s MMAS thesis, “Parenting and Service: Measuring the Effectiveness of the Military Parental Leave Program in the U.S. Army” (U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2025).

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Notes

1. Dawn M. Richardson et al., “Employee Experiences with a Newly Adopted Paid Parental Leave Policy: Equity Considerations for Policy Implementation,” Health Equity 3, no. 1 (July 2019): 117, https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2019.0007.
2. Irene Lapuerta et al., “Individual and Institutional Constraints: An Analysis of Parental Leave Use and Duration in Spain,” Population Research & Policy Review 30, no. 2 (April 2011): 186, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-010-9185-y.
3. Richard J. Petts et al., “Organizational Policies, Workplace Culture, and Perceived Job Commitment of Mothers and Fathers Who Take Parental Leave,” Social Science Research 103 (March 2022): 1, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102651.
4. Richardson et al., “Employee Experiences with a Newly Adopted Paid Parental Leave Policy,” 121.
5. U.S. Army Chief of Staff, The Army Family, White Paper 1983 (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 1983), 4, https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA143245.pdf.
6. Eric K. Shinseki, The Army Family: A White Paper, CMH Pub 70-84-1 (U.S. Army Center of Military History [CMH], 2003), 1, https://history.army.mil/Portals/143/Images/Publications/Publication%20By%20Title%20Images/A%20Titles%20PDF/cmhPub_70-84-1.pdf?ver=vyACciACifsK70DWV_4QrA%3d%3d.
7. Institute of Medicine, Assessing Readiness in Military Women: The Relationship of Body, Composition, Nutrition, and Health (National Academies Press, 1998), https://doi.org/10.17226/6104; Allyson Corbo et al., 2017 Focus Group Report: Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service (DACOWITS) (DACOWITS, 2017), archived 3 May 2025 at https://web.archive.org/web/20250503042515/https://dacowits.defense.gov/Reports/.
8. Brian K. Parker, “Paternity Leave Authorized,” U.S. Army, 29 April 2009, https://www.army.mil/article/20312/paternity_leave_authorized.
9. Corbo et al., 2017 Focus Group Report.
10. Corbo et al., 2017 Focus Group Report.
11. Army Directive 2019-05, Army Military Parental Leave Program (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2019).
12. R. Elaine Freeman et al., Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services 2020 Annual Report (DACOWITS, 2020), 242, archived 3 May 2025 at https://web.archive.org/web/20250503042515/https://dacowits.defense.gov/Reports/; ALARACT 007/2023, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP) Implementation Guidance,” 31 January 2023.
13. Department of Defense (DOD) Instruction 1327.06, Military Leave, Liberty, and Administrative Absence (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2025), https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/132706p.pdf.
14. Gilbert R. Cisneros, memorandum, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program,” Directive-Type Memorandum 23-001, 4 January 2023, https://www.dmi-ida.org/download-pdf/pdf/Directive-type%20Memorandum%2023-001.PDF.
15. Cisneros, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program.”
16. ALARACT 007/2023, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP) Implementation Guidance.”
17. ALARACT 007/2023, “Expansion of the Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP) Implementation Guidance.”
18. ALARACT 035/2024, “The Military Parental Leave Program Implementation Guidance,” 24 May 2024.
19. Nicholas Harkiolakis, Quantitative Research Models from Theory to Publication (pub. by author, 2020), 168.
20. Harkiolakis, Quantitative Research Models from Theory to Publication, 168.
21. Loryana L. Vie et al., Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, First Annual Report (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2021), 75, archived 29 June 2025 at https://web.archive.org/web/20250629082106/https://talent.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/DACES-Annual-Report_JUNE2021.pdf; Daniel Sabido Jamorabo et al., “Fellowship Program Directors and Trainees Across the United States Find Parental Leave Policies to Be Inconsistent, Inaccessible, and Inadequate,” PLOS ONE 16, no. 11 (November 2021): 9, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260057; Patrick Hammer and Rickard Palmgren, “How Parental Leave Policies Influence Employee Engagement” (bachelor’s thesis, University of Gävle, 2019), 4, https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-30291; Richardson et al., “Employee Experiences with a Newly Adopted Paid Parental Leave Policy,” 122; Mihaela Robila, “Family Policies in Eastern Europe: A Focus on Parental Leave,” Journal of Child & Family Studies 21, no. 1 (February 2012): 37, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-010-9421-4; DOD, 2023 Demographics: Profile of the Military Community (DOD, 2023), https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-demographics-report.pdf.
22. Shinseki, The Army Family, 4.
23. Vivek H. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health & Well-Being of Parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024), 3, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/parents-under-pressure.pdf.
24. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure.
25. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure, 5.
26. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure, 10.
27. DOD, 2022 Demographics: Profile of the Military Community (DOD, 2022), https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2022-demographics-report.pdf.
28. DOD, 2022 Demographics.
29. DOD, 2022 Demographics.
30. Vie et al., Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, 19.
31. Vie et al., Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey; Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 and People Analytics, Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, Second Annual Report (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2022), 38, https://talent.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DACES-Second-Annual-Report_FINAL.pdf; Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 and People Analytics, Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, Third Annual Report (Headquarters, Department of the Army, 2023), 32, https://talent.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DACES-Third-Annual-Report_Final.pdf.
32. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure, 24.
33. Murthy, Parents Under Pressure, 24.
34. Protecting Military Parental Leave Evaluations Act, H.R. 656, 119th Cong. (2025), 1–4, https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr656/BILLS-119hr656ih.pdf.
35. ALARACT 035/2024, “The Military Parental Leave Program Implementation Guidance.”

 

 

 

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March-April 2026