<p>Parental leave has been increasingly proposed as a family policy to balance care responsibilities and promote gender equality. However, their effectiveness remains limited by persistent social norms on gender roles and low fathers’ take-up. This paper investigates the effects of an intervention to improve awareness, alter gender beliefs regarding childcare, and increase fathers’ intention of taking leave in Uruguay. We designed and implemented two message-interventions: (i) prospective parents were exposed to information about program features; (ii) recent parents received messages with the information, the benefits of father’s involvement in childcare, or the importance of planning shared childcare. The experimental design allows for the identification of causal effects. Our results reveal the intervention successfully increased program’s knowledge among prospective parents. Notably, men become aware that they are entitled to the benefit. Among recent parents, we find mixed effects on gender attitudes, with the message on planning for shared childcare helping reduce traditional norms among fathers, but the mentioning of breastfeeding reinforcing a strong association between parental leave and the mother’s role in feeding. We find no significant effects on intentions and effective usage of parental leave among recent parents. Our results contribute to the literature and policy discussion by demonstrating that low-cost, low-intensity interventions can effectively enhance awareness on social benefits and alter traditional gender norms. However, the modest and heterogeneous effects, together with the limited impact on intentions and usage underscores the challenges of such interventions for achieving meaningful effects in behaviors that are deeply embedded in social norms.</p>