Experiences of the first year as father (original) (raw)
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Does Fathers’ Care Spill Over? Evaluating Reforms in the Swedish Parental Leave Program
Feminist Economics, 2018
The aim of reserving months for fathers in the Swedish parental leave system was to increase fathers' use of leave as well as encourage gender equality in the home and labor market. Using data from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, this study investigates the effects of the reform-reserving one month of leave for fathers in 1995 and a second month in 2002-on gender equality in the home. The study uses the take up of the parental benefit for the care for sick children (CFSC) as a proxy for gender equality and follows parents' use of CFSC for twelve years for the first reform and ten years for the second reform. Results indicate the first reform led to more equal leave sharing, mainly because use of the benefit decreased among mothers with low education, and at least in part fulfilled the aim of increasing gender equality in the home.
Fathers’ Uptake of Parental Leave: Forerunners and Laggards in Sweden, 1993–2010
Journal of Social Policy
Sweden is often considered a forerunner in family change and developments towards less gendered family production patterns. In this study, we focus on recent developments towards more gender-equal sharing of parental leave in Sweden. We explore how fathers’ use of parental leave has changed over time before and since the turn of the century. As the parental leave benefit is individual and earnings-based, we examine how fathers’ individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics are associated with their parental leave uptake over time, to determine whether there are forerunners and laggards in recent family change. Multinomial logistic regression models were applied to data from national registers. Our study demonstrates a bifurcation in trends in recent decades. This is associated with the extension of reforms that reserve part of the leave for fathers, the so-called “daddy months”, but stretches beyond the impact of any such reforms. Taking a long leave of over two months w...
Forerunners and Laggards in Sweden’s Family Change. Fathers’ uptake of parental leave, 1993-2010
2018
Sweden is often considered a forerunner in family change and developments towards less gendered patterns of family production. In this study, we focus on recent developments towards more gender equal sharing of parental leave in Sweden. This country was the first in the world to introduce a gender-neutral parental leave scheme. The aim was to promote the combination of work and family, mainly by enabling women's participation in the labor force. With time, the focus of policy makers has shifted towards men and their participation in childcare. In our study, we explore how men's use of parental leave has changed over time before and after the turn of the century. We examine how men's individual and socio-demographic characteristics are associated with their parental leave uptake over time in order to find out whether there are forerunners and laggards in recent family change. Multinomial logistic regression models were applied to data from national registers. Our study demonstrates a bifurcation in trends over the last few decades. This was associated with the extension of reforms that reserved part of the leave for fathers, the so-called daddy months, but stretches beyond the impact of any such reforms. Taking long leaves of over two months was pioneered by better-educated residents in metropolitan areas and surrounding suburbs, as well as the Swedish-born. Fathers below age 25, low-income earners and foreign-born men were lagging behind in these developments. We regard the unstable labor market situation of the latter a contributing factor to the widening social inequalities in family related behavior.
2020
Swedish family policy aims to give the same rights and responsibilities to mothers and fathers, regardless of their living arrangements. In terms of parental leave, this means that the father and the mother each get 8 months leave each to be used during their child’s preschool years, regardless of whether they separate. In practice, the father often transfers some of his days to the mother, and the mother uses about three-quarters of all days. This study focuses on the question of whether separated parents use their parental leave entitlement to the same extent as parents who do not separate. The sample consists of parents of children born in Sweden in 2002 and 2003. We examine the parental leave use of these parents for 8 years after their child’s birth. Multinomial regression is used to investigate the leave use of mothers and fathers and the total leave use, depending on whether the parents separated, and, if so, when they separated. The results indicate that although the mothers...
Reforms in the Swedish Parental Leave System and their Effects on Gender Equality
2015
The father’s quota in the Swedish parental leave system aims at increasing fathers’ leave use but also gender equality in the home sphere and in the labor market. This study investigates the effects of the reform of one month reserved for fathers in 1995 and two months in 2002. We use parental benefit for the care for sick children as a proxy for division in the home, and the results indicate that the first reform led to a more equal sharing of care for sick children, mainly as women who had used a lot of benefit days earlier on reduced their use. Moreover, after the second reform women had better income development, especially women who had earlier had very low income, indicating an increased labor supply rather than a wage increase. The results indicate that the father’s quota at least in part also fulfilled the aim of gender equality outside the parental leave system.
Trends in parental leave in the Nordic countries: has the forward march of gender equality halted?
Community, Work & Family, 2015
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 father's 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.
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2020
Purpose Parental leave in Sweden can be taken both as paid and unpaid leave and often parents mix these forms in a very flexible way. Therefore, multiple methodological issues arise regarding how to most accurately measure leave length. The purpose of this paper is to review the somewhat complex legislation and the possible ways of using parental leave before presenting a successful attempt of a more precise way of measuring leave lengths, including paid and unpaid days, for mothers and fathers. Design/methodology/approach The study makes use of administrative data for a complete cohort of parents of first born children in 2009 in Sweden. The authors examine what characteristics are associated with the use of paid and unpaid leave for mothers and fathers during the first two years of the child’s life, focusing particularly on how individual and household income is associated with leave patterns. Findings Among mothers, low income is associated with many paid leave days whereas middl...