Parental leave: Swedish Model

[blackcurrants]

This article about parental leave in Sweden was heartening. I didn't realise that Germany had tried a similar system and found a way to make it work.

Exerpt:
Sweden, he said, faced a vicious circle. Women continued to take parental leave not just for tradition's sake but because their pay was often lower, thus perpetuating pay differences. Companies, meanwhile, made clear to men that staying home with baby was not compatible with a career.
'Society is a mirror of the family,' Mr. Westerberg said. 'The only way to achieve equality in society is to achieve equality in the home. Getting fathers to share the parental leave is an essential part of that.'

Of course, watching all this from across the pond (no maternity leave beyond 12 unpaid weeks, no paternity leave at ALL) my perspective might be slightly rose-tinted and wistful - but it's worth a read.

For those of you in het partnerships: would your partner have liked more parental leave? Would he have taken more time off to be in sole charge of the baby?

[Mingg]

Interesting article.

My husband took parental leave and used holiday (carried over + that year's) to stay at home for 7 weeks after our baby was born. He also worked from home as much as possible and would definitely have wanted more parental leave.

[frikonastick]

my BIL and SIL live in sweden. both of their employers have given them the same amount of leave. so my SIL took a year off first (paid) and she is going back and then my BIL is taking his entitled year off (paid).

[RibenaBerry]

"Taxes account for 47 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 27 percent in the United States and 40 percent in the European Union overall. The public sector, famous for family-friendly perks, employs one in three workers, including half of all working women. Family benefits cost 3.3 percent of G.D.P., the highest in the world along with Denmark and France, said Willem Adema, senior economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development"

I think this is pretty telling. Half of all working women work in the public sector. I wonder what that figure is like in the UK?

I agree that shared leave is the way forward though. It will be interesting to see whether the UK needs to have a portion reserved to fathers or whether the new sharing provisions work alone.

I wonder how they deal with single parent situations - can they somehow claim back the daddy time?

[Mingg]

As far as I know in cases where a single parent has sole custody that parent can take all 480 days leave. If the custody is shared then the father is both entitled to and expected to take his share.

[RibenaBerry]

Interesting. Thanks!