If the world’s 195 countries were a classroom, Nordic countries would be the star students. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark consistently score the highest when it comes to social welfare or gender equality. This has been attributed to the unique family-friendly policies and the state welfare model. The assumption that these countries are the best places to have and raise children is so entrenched, begs the question “Is the Nordic parental leave structure a structure to aspire for?”
Citizens of the Nordic countries pay a significant portion of their income in taxes, and their government provides a wide range of services in return, including health care, child care, education, and paid parental leave; which makes these countries a paradise to live in. Nordic countries as a group offer the most generous parental leave policies in the world-between 40 to 69 weeks, with anywhere from 70 to 100% of pay. (1) The Swedish government entitles parents of both sexes to 480 days of paid parental leave, which they can take any time until the child is eight years old. Sixty days are specifically for the father (father quota), and the arrangement is similar for same-sex couples and adoptive parents. (2)
Another important aspect of the take-up of leave schemes is their flexibility, they have become more and more flexible over time. For instance, instead of allowing part-time leave over a longer period, there are now provisions of full time leave in a shorter period or by letting parents save part of the leave for later use when the child is older. While all the Scandinavian countries earmark some of these weeks for fathers, Denmark is the only Nordic country that does not have a father quota. (2) Though one cannot deny that getting special daddy days is an incentive for fathers to take off and spend time with their infants, the question is do they make proper use of it?
A report commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers for Gender Equality states that fathers avail relatively less parental leave which directly points to how sticky and slow to change the notions of who does the caregiving are. The report found that Icelandic and Swedish fathers take about a third of the total available leave, Norwegian dads take about 20%, and Danish and Finnish dads avail roughly 11%. (2)
But fathers who have taken up their share of parental leave now feel that they have greater opportunities to be active caregivers and to adopt new roles within the family, and at the same time, it has steered mothers away from feeling guilty about pursuing careers. It has been seen that men who take parental leave, care more about their health, take fewer drugs, and are more productive at work. According to a study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, the high level of satisfaction in the Nordic EU countries can be attributed to the paternity leave tends that increase new parents’ satisfaction with their relationship and easing the marital strain that often follows childbirth. (3)
The fathers who take up paternity leaves are now getting a taste of the pressures that working mothers have faced for decades, and the good part is that these involved dads now want to carry an equal load at home while keeping their careers humming. Although the change is hard, they are undertaking the tasks themselves, and have finally accepted the process of parenthood to be harder for mothers. Some have even come to the important realization that, ‘There is a lot of societal pressure around what it means to be a mom.’ Women sometimes chide other mothers, asking how they can go back to work when they have two small children at home, but no one ever says that to a dad.
It has been found that family policy schemes have positive effects on women’s participation in the labor market. Formal rights to maternity leave make it easier for mothers to keep a formal attachment to their previous job and employer which means that mothers do not have to start ‘from scratch’ when returning to the labor market after the childbirth and childrearing period. Having the right to paid maternity leave with job-protection speeds up the return to employment, and hence women who have this right are much more likely to resume employment. One of the most important drivers of gender inequality in the labor market is the arrival of children. A recent study estimates that around 80% of the difference between the average labor-market income of men and women in Denmark relates to the presence of children. The average labor market income of women is significantly and permanently reduced after childbirth, while the same is not the case for men.
Recent research suggests that non-transferable parental leave reforms show promise in the fight to reduce gender inequality.(4) If we leave the division of the parental leave up to the family, the world will still push mothers to take the most of it, therefore, it is imperative to introduce use-it-or-lose-it days for fathers. Otherwise, we just keep the status quo. Following this Iceland in 2003 extended its father quota to 3 months, and if the father didn’t use his 3 months, these months were lost to the family.
Mindful of the benefits, many employers are expanding parental-leave offerings for men and encouraging them to take it. But since fathers tend to earn a higher income than mothers, the replacement rate of former earnings is a key parameter in deciding who takes up how much of the parental leave. In the case of full compensation i.e. a replacement rate of 100%, the incentives are neutral in respect to which parent takes up the scheme. If less than 100%, and especially in case of a flat rate at a fairly low level, there will be economic incentives for the parent with the lowest earnings to take up most or all of the parental leave. (2) A Swedish study found that for every extra month men are at home with their young children, women’s lifetime earnings increase by 7 percent, which helps them become much more economically independent. (5)
So in conclusion, the most important and documented effects from the Nordic family-friendly schemes on equal opportunity and the position of women are all positive as women are now becoming more economically independent of their husbands. And hence paternity leave is rightly considered one of the most important instruments for change. (2)
Even though the proportion of fathers who take up “daddy days”, parental leave, and father quota leave in these countries is far from 100%. (6) But when we draw a comparison, Nordic countries are clearly in the lead with respect to fathers’ take-up of leave periods. So even though Nordic countries don’t have it completely right, they are at least putting in the time, effort, and resources to find out why dads don’t take leave and what might motivate them to change. They have realized that there is no easy solution to this, but they are still trying to bridge the gap between the genders, and their efforts have yielded results- Nordic fathers take more parental leave than fathers anywhere else in the world.
BY - PRANJAL JAIN
Sources Referred:
(1)https://qz.com/1744949/fathers-in-nordic-countries-arent-taking-enough-parental-leave/ (2)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5136283_Child_Care_and_Parental_Leave_in_the_Nordic_Countries_A_Model_to_Aspire_to (3)https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bosses-who-walk-the-walk-on-paternity-leave-11558949400 (4)https://voxeu.org/article/earmarked-paternity-leave-and-relative-income-within-couples (5)https://www.norden.org/en/news/male-fight-gender-equality (6)https://www.norden.org/sv/node/17575
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