Guðný Björk Eydal

Trends in parental leave in the Nordic countries: has the forward march of gender equality halted?

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the development of parental leave in the Nordic countries in the last decade or so and explain the different approaches taken by individual countries in this regard. Focusing on recent developments, though mainly on the provision of a fathers quota, we discuss whether we are actually witnessing a paradigm shift in some of these countries, i.e. a movement away from an emphasis on the dual earner/dual carer model and a reverting back to a more traditional family model approach where the mother is seen as the main parent. This change is commonly presented under the guise of it respecting the ‘free choice’ of individual families. Furthermore, the article asks why the changes in question have taken place and examines the positions of different political parties towards the issue. The article shows that the Nordic countries are developing somewhat different policies and the intra-Nordic gap in both policies and politics seems to be increasing rather than narrowing.

Family Policy in Iceland: An Overview

There are more children in Icelandic families than in the other Nordic countries. Workforce participation in Iceland is also amongst the highest in the West. The need for family support is therefore immense. While overall expenditures on families with children in Iceland have converged with those of other Nordic nations in the last few years, the expenditures per child up to age 17 are still significantly lower in Iceland. This is more marked for expenditures on benefits; expenditures on services are comparable with those found in other Nordic countries. During the 1990s, significant policy changes occurred in Iceland, which have improved the legal rights and conditions of families with children. These applied, for example, to rights to paternity and maternity leaves, children’s right to receive care from both parents, and a stronger status for joint care. The rights of same-sex couples were significantly enhanced in 2006. Day care services (pre-school) have extensively grown since the early 1990s (increased rates of use and longer care hours) and so have after-school services. On the other hand, expenditures on child benefits have fallen since 1990. It is not clear at this stage whether this has changed the extent of poverty amongst families with children.

Parental leave, childcare and gender equality in the Nordic countries

De nordiske lande anses ofte for at vaere foregangslande inden for ligestillingsomradet. Det er sandt at kvinder generelt har en staerkere position i de nordiske samfund end i resten af verden. Der e ...

Föräldraledighet, omsorgspolitik och jämställdhet i Norden

De nordiska landerna anses ofta var foregangslander nar det galler jamstalldhet mellan kvinnor och man. Generellt sett star kvinnor starkare i Nord ...

Family Policies: The Case of Iceland

Icelandic family policy was left implicit until explicit goals of family policy were enacted by a parliamentary resolution in 1997. The resolution emphasises the need to strengthen the position of the family, regardless of family type. It also states that the welfare of the family is based on equality between men and women in all aspects of life. Work-life balance has gained increased attention in policymaking during the 1990s and led to important changes, for example in family law where the rights of children to care from both parents were strengthened and in laws on paid parental leave that, from 2000, have provided both parents with equal rights to paid parental leave. While support for care, paid parental leave, day care and after-school and leisure service has been increased from the 1990s, the support for provision of children has not increased and family benefits in Iceland are income tested. Compared to other nations in Europe, child poverty is nevertheless among the lowest according to Eurostat (2012). The Icelandic welfare system also provides general measures, benefits and services to the elderly and the disabled; education and health services are mainly publicly financed, and there are also additional measures for groups at risk, such as social assistance and child protection services. Government and other agencies have emphasised the need for evidence-based policies and practices, but little family research has been conducted, the lack of research in the field being evident.

Nordic Childcare: A Response to Old and New Tensions?

The Nordic countries in most comparative research make up a cluster or a family of nations having similar welfare systems, and thus lay claim to forming their own welfare model, the Social-Democratic model (Esping-Andersen, 1990). One of the main components of the Nordic model is the publicly subsidized and locally produced social services that are generally available to all and used without stigma or loss of status (Anttonen and Sipila, 1996). This includes the generous public support of childcare services provided for parents with young children (Ellingsaeter and Leira, 2006;Rostgaard and Fridberg, 1998; Sipila, 1997). The Nordic childcare policies, however, also encompass several cash options available in the form of leave and cash-for-care for parents who wish to stay at home to care for their children. It is, therefore, important to look holistically at the different types of childcare support in order to get a full picture of the support provided for parents in order to understand the tensions which may arise from the combination of parenthood and labour market participation.

Iceland: Welfare in a Deep Economic Crisis

The chapter aims at investigating how the Icelandic welfare system was used to tackle the effects of the financial and economic crisis in 2007/2008. The chapter asks what main challenges the Icelandic welfare system had to face and how they have been met during the aftermath of the crisis that started in the autumn of 2008. The main challenges that Iceland faced in the aftermath of the financial collapse was increased unemployment, reduced real earnings, higher debt burden of households and businesses and collapsed governmental finances. The chapter primarily focuses on the welfare strategy part of the responses to the crisis and explains how Iceland managed to promote a welfare strategy despite the serious financial constraints. That strategy was primarily characterized by redistribution of welfare expenditures, with increased transfers to households and cuts in expenditures on services (healthcare and education) and on administration. Targeting of transfers on lower income groups was also increased and that helped to avert a significant increase in severe poverty during the crisis years.

Gender differences in young adults’ inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the future for family reasons: comparative study with university students from Nairobi, Madrid, and Reykjavik

ABSTRACT This article addresses the question of to what extent young people show an inclination to accept some sacrifice in their career progression in the future in order to reach a better work–family balance. Data come from a survey conducted among a sample of 2383 university students who attended three universities: University of Nairobi, University of Iceland, and Complutense University of Madrid. After building a set of indicators about career and family involvement aspirations of respondents, and after conducting a statistical and regression analysis, this research shows that young women (on average) still have a greater predisposition than young men to make sacrifices in the future in their working careers in order to achieve a better work–family balance. Moreover, having a high degree of leadership aspirations and belonging to an egalitarian household tend to reduce the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities, whereas having a high inclination to be involved in childcare in the future and having the perception of a future work–family conflict tend to increase it. Gender attitudes have a differential effect on female and male students: having traditional gender attitudes tends to increase the inclination to sacrifice career opportunities in the case of female students and reduce it in the case of male students.

Chapter 10: Policies Promoting Active Fatherhood in Five Nordic Countries

Results show that while all Nordic governments promote a dual-earner/dual-carer social democratic welfare state model emphasizing the active participation of fathers in the care of their children, variations exist in policy and practices. Care policies and entitlements to a father quota of paid parental leave are a defining factor for enhancing fathers’ role in care of their children and the findings show that Nordic fathers are making use of their quota and gradually increasing their share in taking leave for the care of young children.

The Nordic Welfare Watch : Final report

The Nordic Welfare Watch was a leadership programme during the Icelandic presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2014 and consisted three main projects: Nordic Welfare Watch – in Response ...