A new study has shown that the extension of a second so-called "daddy month" in Sweden in 2002 did not have any effect on gender equality in the labour market. Out of 16 months (480 days) of parental leave (390 days at 80 % salary subject to a cap and remaining days granting a small guarantee amount per day), two months cannot be transferred to the mother but must be taken by the father before the child turns 8. Of course, fathers can take more than the two earmarked months - a right that they have had for over 30 years - but that is not that common as you would think in this supposed land of gender equality. On average fathers take out 20 % of the days but less than 3 % of fathers are considered to be sharing the leave allotment equally, defined here as fathers taking at least 40 %, i.e. at least 6 months.
A reason for the limited impact on gender equality is that the second daddy month was introduced at the same time as the total days of allowed parental leave were increased (probably a good idea in theory but those experts didn't really think about all factors, did they). The added days are usually taken by the mother, off-setting the increased outtake of daddy days. The introduction of the first daddy month on the contrary, led to a substantial increase of paternal leave, with a clear effect on the labour market. In general though, men tend to take most of their parental leave after the child has turned 2 and around Christmas time and in the summer.
Com'mon dads, you can do better than that! I vow not to let Peter take less than half once we go down that road!
Excellent post! Me and Magistern have already decided to split the parental leave 50 50. We wouldn't want it any other way.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, yes! and we thought like skolfröken. I even think we were deeply committed to this. But... when reality comes into play it does not look like we´ll be able to. And it isn´t even a choice, it´s just how work does not comply with the ideal wish. )=
ReplyDeleteWork should comply with your wishes! There are lots of arguments against splitting it halfway but try to dissect each one of them and you will only have one or two valid ones (if even that). Doing that you will hopefully end up with at least a 60-40 % split.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, now it seems that the men are in fact dangerous to the children so perhaps we should rethink this? Perhaps it's for the best if they continue working and putting up drywall?
ReplyDeleteLOL
I've been meaning to comment on this for a while now, but I haven't been able to work my thoughts out exactly the way I want to say them. I'll give it a shot, though ...
ReplyDeleteI would hate to see it legislated that each parent must take half of the allotted parental leave or else forfeit it. I strongly believe that the decision should be left up to individual families, and that they should be trusted to make the best choices for their families. For my family, it's simply not practical for my husband to take half of the parental leave, if for no other reason than that we'd lose thousands upon thousands of kronor every month. There are, of course, other reasons, and my husband is in no way shirking his parental responsibility by not taking paternity leave.
I respect parents who do decide to split the parental leave evenly, but again, I don't think there's anything wrong with choosing for one parent to take the bulk of the time home with a new baby.