Interest in offering paternity benefits is growing among employers, though the culture within many organizations has so far hindered the widespread use of such benefits by employees, experts say.

The movement toward greater employer adoption of the programs, which include paid leave and lactation-related benefits, comes as research shows that men are taking on a bigger share of the child care responsibilities at home.

"Leading-edge companies are beginning to recognize that fathers are entitled to the same type of flexibility as mothers," said Susan Seitel, president of Work & Family Connection Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn.

The movement, though, has been gradual, experts say.

"More companies are looking at the importance of paternity leave very slowly," said Kathy Lynch, director of corporate partnerships at the Boston College Center for Work & Family in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The change in attitude "is slow and subtle," she added.

KPMG L.L.P. is one employer that has embraced paternity benefits.

Last year, the New York-based tax and accounting firm began providing new fathers with two weeks of paid time off after a child's birth. The move reflects KMPG's desire to provide equitable benefits to its male and female employees, explained Kathie Lingle, national work/life director at KPMG in Montvale, N.J. "If you do something for mothers, you also do it for fathers," Ms. Lingle said.

Recent research shows that more men are taking on a greater role in child care.

The National Study of the Changing Workforce, released this year by the Families & Work Institute in New York, surveyed 3,504 employed adults between October 2002 and June 2003. Thirty percent of women with spouses and children surveyed reported that their spouses are taking an equal or greater role for child care than they are. In 1992, that figure was only 24%, according to the survey.

However, many men in the workforce are still reluctant to take time away from work to deal with a new arrival in the family. And employers must overcome these cultural forces if they want employees to make use of paternity benefits.

New fathers are reluctant to take paternity leave because "they are afraid they will lose their jobs," Ms. Lynch said. In addition, they are concerned they will be perceived as less committed to their job, damaging their careers, she said.

"For the most part, men are still not taking advantage of these benefits," noted D'Ann Whitehead, senior consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide in San Francisco.

It takes a significant cultural shift in an organization to change this attitude, said KMPG's Ms. Lingle. At KPMG, this shift has been under way as the company has stressed the importance of balancing work and personal life. As a result, about half of its eligible male employees take advantage of the firm's paid paternity leave, she sad.

The shift in attitude must start at the top, said Peter Burki, chief executive officer at LifeCare Inc. in Westport, Conn. Last year, Mr. Burki took two weeks' leave for the birth of his first child. As a result, other fathers at the work/life services company, which offers paid paternity leave and a lactation program, felt they could take time off to be with their newborn children, he said.

"My comfort with taking advantage of our paternity benefits has encouraged our employees to follow suit," he said.

For the needed cultural change to become widespread, though, requires more than just corporate chiefs taking time off, Mr. Burki said. "Unless it's practiced and supported by midlevel management, you won't have success. It has to be practiced throughout the organization," he said.

In addition to being granted paternity leave, male employees increasingly are being offered lactation-related benefits for their wives.

In the past, lactation programs-which typically offer discounts on breast pumps and supplies, free lactation consultations and educational materials-were provided only to female employees. Now, though, "it's very rare for a company to only offer it to females," said Carol Ann Friedman, director of the Mothers At Work program at LifeCare in Pasadena, Calif.

Of the 23 companies that offer LifeCare's lactation program, all but one provide it to both male and female employees, which marks a big shift from just a few years ago, Ms. Friedman said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. does not currently offer its lactation program to male employees. However, male employees are asking for it, and the firm is reevaluating its stance, said Toni Riccardi, chief diversity officer at the tax and accounting firm in New York.

Attitudes about paternity benefits are changing, in part, because of the influence of younger workers. Ms. Riccardi said that employees under age 30 are more likely to take leave than are their older peers, noting that young men are "more involved in thinking about the total pregnancy."

In general, these younger workers place greater emphasis on their personal needs than on their perceived employment obligations, said Ms. Friedman of LifeCare.

"They seem to be much more aware of what they want and are not willing to let work dictate how they will be parents," she said.