Linda Haas

The Impact of Taking Parental Leave on Fathers’ Participation In Childcare And Relationships With Children: Lessons from Sweden

In Sweden, government-mandated paid parental leave has been available to both mothers and fathers since 1974. By 2006, each parent had two non-transferable leave months and nine additional months to share. From the beginning, parental leave was presented as a policy designed to promote gender equality, with women and men having equal opportunities and responsibilities to contribute economically to the family and care for children. Sweden thus provides a unique setting to explore whether social policy can be an important instrument for changing the gender contract. Analysing survey data from 356 fathers working in large private companies, we found that the amount of parental leave days taken had positive effects on several aspects of fathers’ participation in childcare and on their satisfaction with contact with children, controlling for other factors contributing to fathers’ participation in childcare. Our findings suggest that the full potential of Swedens parental leave policy for degendering the division of labour for childcare will not likely be met until fathers are strongly encouraged by social policy to take a more equal portion of parental leave.

Gender and Organizational Culture: Correlates of Companies' Responsiveness to Fathers in Sweden

This study explores company support for mens participation in child care in Sweden, where the government promotes gender equality. The authors investigate the influence of two ideologies about gender, the doctrine of separate spheres and masculine hegemony, on the responsiveness to fathers shown by Swedens largest corporations. Father-friendly companies had adopted values associated with the private sphere and prioritized entrance of women into the public sphere. Companies with less masculine hegemony provided some informal but no formal support to fathers. Following social justice theory, future research could focus on how fathers come to perceive the lack of corporate responsiveness as unfair.

Families and Work

For most adults, family and work roles are the most significant sources of identity. Historically, social scientists investigated work and family roles as if they were separate from one another; the family and the economy were studied as distinct social institutions. As more women have entered the paid labor force, researchers have paid increasing attention to linkages between family and work (Bielby and Bielby, 1988b). We can no longer ignore that most individuals are trying to balance work and family roles—87% of American adults live with other family members and 47% are responsible for the care of a dependent family member (children, ill partner, or ill parent) (Galinsky, Bond, & Friedman, 1993).

Family Policy in Sweden

Sweden has a well-developed family policy, organized around the goals of family economic security and physical well-being, voluntary parenthood, gender equality, and childrens rights. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of family policy in Sweden, beginning with a brief history of the development of family policy goals and a consideration of the reasons for the consensus on family policy goals that has arisen. Details are provided on programs designed to reach goals, and the success of these programs is evaluated. The impact of recent economic and political developments on the future of family policy making in Sweden is also discussed.

Trade union support for fathers' use of work–family benefits – lessons from Sweden

Trade unions have traditionally been male-dominated organizations serving mens interests as family breadwinners, primarily through wage-setting. This study explores whether unions will contest the gendered division of parenting to develop values and practices that support men as caregivers. It takes place in Sweden, where unions are strong and fathers have legislated rights to paid parental leave. A mail survey of local unions revealed that the vast majority of unions did not believe it was important to focus attention on men as family caregivers. Only about one-fourth reported activities to improve mens benefit knowledge; only about one-third reported that they helped to implement parental leave at the workplace and only about one-fourth had negotiated contracts that extended leave benefits for fathers. Unions were more active in supporting men as fathers when they prioritized womens equal employment opportunity and when fathers requested union help. Stronger unions were more likely than others to have won enhanced benefits; contracts tended to increase compensation rather than offer more leave time. Swedish unions are in a strong position to promote, help implement and extend work–family benefits for fathers, dissolving the boundary between work and family spheres, but this potential has not yet been realized.

Fathers on Leave Alone in Sweden: Toward More Equal Parenthood?

During the past 50 years the meaning of fatherhood and expectations for Swedish fathers has changed dramatically. Norms about masculinity, previously closely related to paid work and breadwinning, have partly been replaced by new ideals in which fathers are caring and active parents. This development has been partially policy-driven; since the 1960s, fatherhood in policy discourse and practice has successively shifted towards a focus on gender equality and a dual earner-carer model. Sweden was the first country in the world that granted fathers the right to paid parental leave in 1974. Since then policy reforms and campaigns have promoted fathers’ up-take of parental leave. Today, there is a strong social norm that fathers should take parental leave and the share of days taken by fathers increases each year. However, relatively few fathers take an equal portion of the leave and relatively little research addresses whether long leaves promote a more egalitarian division of labor. This chapter presents results from interviews with 14 fathers who had taken a substantial amount of leave, who report on leave decision-making, experiences and outcomes, and explores the extent to which results suggest that long leaves are likely to promote an egalitarian model of parenthood.