Ragni Hege Kitterød

Making up for mothers’ employed working hours? Housework and childcare among Norwegian fathers

It is an important aim in Norwegian work-family policy to enhance fathers’ family role, and some argue that we now have a father-friendly welfare state. Norwegian time-use surveys show an increase in fathers’ family-work, but we know little about the factors influencing fathers’ domestic labour. In this article we ask whether fathers increase their housework and childcare in response to mothers’ employment. Using the latest Norwegian time-use survey, we find a non-linear relationship between the mother’s working hours and the couple’s non-overlapping working hours on the one hand, and the mother’s working hours and the father’s family-work on the other.The father makes up for the mother’s absence only when she works short hours and only for certain chores. Full-time employment for the mother does not increase the father’s contribution in any types of family-work. This suggests that dual-earner parents rely mostly on external childcare to substitute for the mother’s absence.

Gender-Equalizing Family Policies and Mothers' Entry into Paid Work: Recent Evidence From Norway

ABSTRACT Universal parental leaves with job protection and earnings compensation increase womens labor market attachment, but very long leaves may have negative consequences at both individual and societal levels. Using panel data from the period 1996–2010, we study whether it is possible to offset the potential negative effects on womens labor supply of long parental leaves by policies targeted especially at fathers, and policies making formal daycare cheaper and more easily available. Norway is used as example, since all recent extensions in the parental leave scheme have been reserved for fathers and at the same time the daycare sector has expanded rapidly. We find that Norwegian mothers did enter work faster after childbirth in the late 2000s than a decade earlier. The latest initiatives may thus have contributed to a shortening of womens career interruptions and a more equal division of paid and unpaid work among parents.

Non-traditional dual earners in Norway: when does she work at least as much as he?

An equal division of paid and unpaid work in couples is a central political ambition in many countries. Utilizing a survey from 2007, this article finds that many Norwegian women perform approximately as much paid work as their partner. Still, few work more than their partners and about half work less than them. Domestic commitments as well as the partners’ labour market resources affect women’s allocation of paid work, but the highly gender-segregated labour market also plays an important role. When the woman works most, her spouse often has health problems, is unemployed or retired. In dual-earner couples women with longer hours than their partner are often well educated, self-employed, managers, have no young children or a partner in the public sector. Women with young children or health restrictions often work less than their partner, as do those with a partner who is self-employed, holds a managerial position or a private-sector job.

Universalising Childcare, Changing Mothers’ Attitudes: Policy Feedback in Norway

The way that welfare policies influence the interpretative processes of social actors is attracting increasing attention. In this article, we investigate policy change impacts on ideas mothers have about the best form of care for their children. The data are taken from representative surveys among mothers of preschool-age children in 2002 and 2010 in Norway. The surveys cover a decade of marked reforms in childcare services with regard to the supply of places, parents’ fees and the right to be given a place in care. Policy change gave rise to major shifts in attitude. From conditional attitudes to the suitability of institutional care, the majority view shifted towards ‘childcare services only’ being considered the best form of care for preschool-age children. This occurred among mothers in all socio-economic groups and in all parts of the country. Based on policy feedback theories, mechanisms likely to have caused this shift – policy visibility, proximity and timing – are considered.