A new study from sociologists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Maryland at College Park challenges the idea that men in academe can abuse gender-neutral parental leave policies to focus on research rather than parenting — or teaching.

In “Parental Leave Usage by Fathers and Mothers at an American University,” in this month’s issue of the journal Fathering, Jennifer Lundquist and Joya Misra of UMass, along with KerryAnn O’Meara of Maryland, found that relatively few male faculty members with children took paid parental leave (72 percent of reported leave-takers were women, while 82 percent of all non-leave-takers were men). Those who did take it said they needed to because their spouses were not full-time homemakers. Some fathers whose partners were back at work full time did still not take leave, fearing negative professional repercussions, such as delayed promotions.

The findings contradict assertions that male professors can exploit the paid leave system because they are more likely than their female colleagues to have spouses who stay at home all or most of the time to raise children.