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Article
Changing Practices on Fatherhood in Postmodern Sweden
Author(s)
TAN Ting-ting
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2017.05.013
Affiliation(s)
Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
ABSTRACT
Sweden has transformed into a considerable gender equality and family-friendly society over the past half-century. Meanwhile, Swedish involved fathers have been not only regarded as the role model in many countries, but also been the focus of extensive research. However, the trajectory trends of shifting practices on fatherhood in postmodern Sweden and the reasons underlying the whole gender equality reforms are still not clearly illustrated and explored. Therefore, this paper tries to answer these questions by reviewing related literature from 1960 to 2017. It is found that although dual-earner and dual-carer models were proposed together as early as the mid-1960s, it was the former that proved easier to achieve. Since 1990s substantial shifts in the practices on fatherhood have occurred in Sweden. Nowadays, it becomes quite nature and common for Swedish fathers to take parental leave and share housework and childcare with their partners. The findings also highlight that in the transition towards a father-friendly state, the following causes and factors have interplayed with each other in Sweden: (a) Comprehensive and thorough grassroots feminist cultures and strategists have laid the foundations of gender equality in education, politics, economics and religion; (b) New images of fatherhood in the literature and medium programs have further shaped the values of respecting nurturing and soft fathers; (c) Father-friendly social policies have significantly constructed the dual-earner and dual-carer models; and (d) Organizational culture on balancing work and life has strongly supported the practices on involved and active fathering. Last, this paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of oral history and comparative studies on shifting fatherhood.
KEYWORDS
Gender revolution; Gender equality; Dual-earner/carer model; Fatherhood; Father-friendly communities; Sweden
Cite this paper
References
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Bauer, M., Askling, B., Marton, S. G., & Marton, F. (1999). Transforming universities: Changing patterns of governance, structure and learning in Swedish higher education. Higher Education Policy Series 48. Taylor and Francis, Inc. 325 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Bergman, H., & Hobson, B. (2002). Compulsory fatherhood: The coding of fatherhood in the Swedish welfare state. Making men into fathers: Men, masculinities and the social politics of fatherhood, 92-124.
Bernhardt, E., Goldscheider, F., & Turunen, J. (2016). Attitudes to the gender division of labor and the transition to fatherhood: Are egalitarian men in Sweden more likely to remain childless? ActaSociologica, 59(3), 269-284.
Bianchi, S. M. (2000). Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity? Demography, 37, 410-414.
Björnberg, U. (2016). Nordic family policies in a European context. Sociology and Anthropology, 4(6), 508-516.
Bredström, A. (2003). Gendered racism and the production of cultural difference: Media representations and identity work among “immigrant youth” in contemporary Sweden. Nora: Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies, 11(2), 78-88.
Bygren, M., & Duvander, A. Z. (2006). Parents’ workplace situation and fathers’ parental leave use. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(2), 363-372.
Connell, R. W., & Connell, R. (2005).The male roles. In Masculinities (pp. 21-27). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Datta Gupta, N., Smith, N., & Verner, M. (2006). Child care and parental leave in the Nordic countries: A model to aspire to? IZA DP No. 2014. Bonn: IZA. debatten, edited by Hans Hederberg. Stockholm: Bonnier.
Dribe, M., &Stanfors, M. (2007). Fatherhood and men’s everyday time use in Sweden, 1990/91-2000/01 (Paper for session 48 “Work and Family: A Father’s Perspective” at The Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, New York, pp. 29-31). Retrieved from http://paa2007.princeton.edu/papers/70354
Dryler, H. (1998). Educational choice in Sweden: Studies on the importance of gender and social contexts (Doctoral dissertation, The Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University).
Eduards, M., Gustafsson, G., &Rönnblom, M. (1997). Towards a New Democratic Order?: Women’s Organizing in Sweden in the 1990s. Bucharest: Publica.
Evertsson, M. (2006). The reproduction of gender: Housework and attitudes towards gender equality in the home among Swedish boys and girls. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(3), 415-436.
Ferrarini, T., & Duv, A. Z. (2009). Swedish family policy controversial reform of a success story. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 3, 1-10.
Ferrarini, T., & Duvander, A. Z. (2010). Earner-carer model at the crossroads: Reforms and outcomes of Sweden’s family policy in comparative perspective. International Journal of Health Services, 40(3), 373-398.
Forsberg, L. (2007). Negotiating involved fatherhood: Household work, childcare and spending time with children. NORMA: Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies, 2, 109-126.
Forsberg, L. (2009). Involved parenthood: Everyday lives of Swedish middle-class families (pp. 1-199). Linköping University Electronic Press.
Goldscheider, F. Bernhardt, E., & Lappegård, T. (2015). The gender revolution: A theoretical framework for understanding new family-demographic behavior. Population and Development Review, 42(2), 207-239.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2009). Is fatherhood becoming more visible at work? Trends in corporate support for fathers taking parental leave in Sweden. Fathering, 7(3), 303.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2016). “It’s about time!”: Company support for fathers’ entitlement to reduced work hours in Sweden. Social Politics, 23(1), 142-167.
Hearn, J., Nordberg, M., Andersson, K., Balkmar, D., Gottzén, L., Klinth, R., … & Sandberg, L. (2012). Hegemonic masculinity and beyond: 40 years of research in Sweden. Men and masculinities, 1097184X11432113, 1-25.
Hobson, B. (2016). Fathers’ capabilities for work-life balance in Sweden: The unfinished revolution (特集 work-family balance of families with small children: How to achieve gender equality in parenting). 家族社会学研究= Japanese Journal of Family Sociology, 28(2), 193-206.
Hornscheidt, A. (2008). Sweden-the world’s most feminist society: An analysis of current Swedish media debates and person appellation forms as a tool within CDA. Journal of Language and Politics, 7(3), 391-412.
Jakobsson, N., & Kotsadam, A. (2010). Do attitudes toward gender equality really differ between Norway and Sweden?. Journal of European Social Policy, 20(2), 142-15.
Jantera-Jareborg, M. (2009). Family law in a multicultural Sweden—The challenges of migration and religion. In Uppsala–Minnesota Colloquium: Law, Culture and Values.
Johansson, T. (2011). Fatherhood in transition: Paternity leave and changing masculinities. Journal of Family Communication, 11(3), 165-180. Karlstad University.
Kaufman, G., & Bernhardt, E. (2012). His and her job: What matters most for fertility plans and actual childbearing?. Family Relations, 61(4), 686-697.
Korpi, W., Ferrarini, T., & Englund, S. (2013). Women’s opportunities under different family policy constellations: Gender, class, and inequality tradeoffs in western countries re-examined. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 20(1), 1-40.
Lagerlöf, E. (1993). Panel of experts on women work and health: National report Sweden. Stockholm: Socialdepartementet.
Le Grand, C., & Tsukaguchi-Legrand, T. (2003). Gender, employment systems and labour market outcomes in Japan and Sweden. Women in Japan and Sweden: Work and Family in Two Welfare Regimes, 63-92.
Lewis, J., & Åström, G. (1992). Equality, difference, and state welfare: Labor market and family policies in Sweden. Feminist Studies, 18(1), 59-87.
Lindvert, J. (2002). A world apart. Swedish and Australian gender equality policy. Nora: Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies, 10(2), 99-107.
Lupton, D., & Barclay, L. (1997). Constructing fatherhood: Discourses and experiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Morgan, K. J. (2008). The political path to a dual earner/dual carer society: Pitfalls and possibilities. Politics & Society, 36(3), 403-420.
Neuman, N. (2016). Stories of masculinity, gender equality, and culinary progress: On foodwork, cooking, and men in Sweden (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).
Nordenmark, M., Björk Eydal, G., & Rostgaard, T. (2014). Gender regime, attitudes towards childcare and actual involvement in childcare among fathers. In Fatherhood in the Nordic Welfare states: Comparing care policies and practice (pp. 163-186). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Nordstrom, B. J. (2010). Culture and customs of Sweden. California: Greenwood.
Nyberg, A. (2012). Gender equality policy in Sweden: 1970s-2010s. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 2(4), 67-84.
Nyberg, A. (Forthcoming 2017). From Kick-start to U-turn? Gender equality in Sweden. In B. English, M. E. Frederickson, and O. Sanmiguel-Valderrama (Eds.), Gender and work in the global economy. London: Routledge, forthcoming 2017.
Oláh, L. S., & Bernhardt, E. (2008). Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality. Demographic Research, 19(28), 1105-1144.
Oláh, L. S., Bernhardt, E. M., & Goldscheider, F. K. (2002). Coresidential paternal roles in industrialized countries: Sweden, Hungary, and the United States. Making Men Into Fathers: Men, Masculinities and the Social Politics of Fatherhood, 25-57.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1998). Women and structural change: New perspectives. Paris, France: Organization for Economic.
Pfau-Effinger, B., & Smidt, M. (2011). Differences in women’s employment patterns and family policies: Eastern and western Germany. Community, Work & Family, 14(2), 217-232.
Sarch, Y. (1997). Outside academia: The changing job market and its influence. Women as Leaders and Managers in Higher Education, 28-34.
Seward, R. R., Yeatts, D. E., & Zottarelli, L. K. (2002). Parental leave and father involvement in child care: Sweden and the United States. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 387-399.
Sundström, M., & Duvander, A. Z. E. (2002). Gender division of childcare and the sharing of parental leave among new parents in Sweden. European Sociological Review, 18(4), 433-447.
Swedin, G. (1996). Modern Swedish fatherhood: The challenges and the opportunities. Reproductive Health Matters, 4(7), 25-33.
Swedish Social Insurance Agency. (2016). Social insurance in figures 2016. Stockholm, Sweden: Lenanders Grafiska AB.
Towns, A. (2002). Paradoxes of (In) equality something is Rotten in the gender equal state of Sweden. Cooperation and Conflict, 37(2), 157-179.
Wells, M. B., & Sarkadi, A. (2012). Do father-friendly policies promote father-friendly child-rearing practices? A review of Swedish parental leave and child health centers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(1), 25-31.
Wiles, J. A., Wiles, C. R., & Tjernlund, A. (1995). A comparison of gender role portrayals in magazine advertising: The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. European Journal of Marketing, 29(11), 35-49.
Wissö, T., & Plantin, L. (2015). Fathers and parental support in everyday family life: Informal support in Sweden beyond the auspices of the welfare state. Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(2), 267-280.
Bauer, M., Askling, B., Marton, S. G., & Marton, F. (1999). Transforming universities: Changing patterns of governance, structure and learning in Swedish higher education. Higher Education Policy Series 48. Taylor and Francis, Inc. 325 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Bergman, H., & Hobson, B. (2002). Compulsory fatherhood: The coding of fatherhood in the Swedish welfare state. Making men into fathers: Men, masculinities and the social politics of fatherhood, 92-124.
Bernhardt, E., Goldscheider, F., & Turunen, J. (2016). Attitudes to the gender division of labor and the transition to fatherhood: Are egalitarian men in Sweden more likely to remain childless? ActaSociologica, 59(3), 269-284.
Bianchi, S. M. (2000). Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity? Demography, 37, 410-414.
Björnberg, U. (2016). Nordic family policies in a European context. Sociology and Anthropology, 4(6), 508-516.
Bredström, A. (2003). Gendered racism and the production of cultural difference: Media representations and identity work among “immigrant youth” in contemporary Sweden. Nora: Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies, 11(2), 78-88.
Bygren, M., & Duvander, A. Z. (2006). Parents’ workplace situation and fathers’ parental leave use. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(2), 363-372.
Connell, R. W., & Connell, R. (2005).The male roles. In Masculinities (pp. 21-27). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Datta Gupta, N., Smith, N., & Verner, M. (2006). Child care and parental leave in the Nordic countries: A model to aspire to? IZA DP No. 2014. Bonn: IZA. debatten, edited by Hans Hederberg. Stockholm: Bonnier.
Dribe, M., &Stanfors, M. (2007). Fatherhood and men’s everyday time use in Sweden, 1990/91-2000/01 (Paper for session 48 “Work and Family: A Father’s Perspective” at The Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, New York, pp. 29-31). Retrieved from http://paa2007.princeton.edu/papers/70354
Dryler, H. (1998). Educational choice in Sweden: Studies on the importance of gender and social contexts (Doctoral dissertation, The Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University).
Eduards, M., Gustafsson, G., &Rönnblom, M. (1997). Towards a New Democratic Order?: Women’s Organizing in Sweden in the 1990s. Bucharest: Publica.
Evertsson, M. (2006). The reproduction of gender: Housework and attitudes towards gender equality in the home among Swedish boys and girls. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(3), 415-436.
Ferrarini, T., & Duv, A. Z. (2009). Swedish family policy controversial reform of a success story. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 3, 1-10.
Ferrarini, T., & Duvander, A. Z. (2010). Earner-carer model at the crossroads: Reforms and outcomes of Sweden’s family policy in comparative perspective. International Journal of Health Services, 40(3), 373-398.
Forsberg, L. (2007). Negotiating involved fatherhood: Household work, childcare and spending time with children. NORMA: Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies, 2, 109-126.
Forsberg, L. (2009). Involved parenthood: Everyday lives of Swedish middle-class families (pp. 1-199). Linköping University Electronic Press.
Goldscheider, F. Bernhardt, E., & Lappegård, T. (2015). The gender revolution: A theoretical framework for understanding new family-demographic behavior. Population and Development Review, 42(2), 207-239.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2009). Is fatherhood becoming more visible at work? Trends in corporate support for fathers taking parental leave in Sweden. Fathering, 7(3), 303.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2016). “It’s about time!”: Company support for fathers’ entitlement to reduced work hours in Sweden. Social Politics, 23(1), 142-167.
Hearn, J., Nordberg, M., Andersson, K., Balkmar, D., Gottzén, L., Klinth, R., … & Sandberg, L. (2012). Hegemonic masculinity and beyond: 40 years of research in Sweden. Men and masculinities, 1097184X11432113, 1-25.
Hobson, B. (2016). Fathers’ capabilities for work-life balance in Sweden: The unfinished revolution (特集 work-family balance of families with small children: How to achieve gender equality in parenting). 家族社会学研究= Japanese Journal of Family Sociology, 28(2), 193-206.
Hornscheidt, A. (2008). Sweden-the world’s most feminist society: An analysis of current Swedish media debates and person appellation forms as a tool within CDA. Journal of Language and Politics, 7(3), 391-412.
Jakobsson, N., & Kotsadam, A. (2010). Do attitudes toward gender equality really differ between Norway and Sweden?. Journal of European Social Policy, 20(2), 142-15.
Jantera-Jareborg, M. (2009). Family law in a multicultural Sweden—The challenges of migration and religion. In Uppsala–Minnesota Colloquium: Law, Culture and Values.
Johansson, T. (2011). Fatherhood in transition: Paternity leave and changing masculinities. Journal of Family Communication, 11(3), 165-180. Karlstad University.
Kaufman, G., & Bernhardt, E. (2012). His and her job: What matters most for fertility plans and actual childbearing?. Family Relations, 61(4), 686-697.
Korpi, W., Ferrarini, T., & Englund, S. (2013). Women’s opportunities under different family policy constellations: Gender, class, and inequality tradeoffs in western countries re-examined. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 20(1), 1-40.
Lagerlöf, E. (1993). Panel of experts on women work and health: National report Sweden. Stockholm: Socialdepartementet.
Le Grand, C., & Tsukaguchi-Legrand, T. (2003). Gender, employment systems and labour market outcomes in Japan and Sweden. Women in Japan and Sweden: Work and Family in Two Welfare Regimes, 63-92.
Lewis, J., & Åström, G. (1992). Equality, difference, and state welfare: Labor market and family policies in Sweden. Feminist Studies, 18(1), 59-87.
Lindvert, J. (2002). A world apart. Swedish and Australian gender equality policy. Nora: Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies, 10(2), 99-107.
Lupton, D., & Barclay, L. (1997). Constructing fatherhood: Discourses and experiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Morgan, K. J. (2008). The political path to a dual earner/dual carer society: Pitfalls and possibilities. Politics & Society, 36(3), 403-420.
Neuman, N. (2016). Stories of masculinity, gender equality, and culinary progress: On foodwork, cooking, and men in Sweden (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).
Nordenmark, M., Björk Eydal, G., & Rostgaard, T. (2014). Gender regime, attitudes towards childcare and actual involvement in childcare among fathers. In Fatherhood in the Nordic Welfare states: Comparing care policies and practice (pp. 163-186). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Nordstrom, B. J. (2010). Culture and customs of Sweden. California: Greenwood.
Nyberg, A. (2012). Gender equality policy in Sweden: 1970s-2010s. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 2(4), 67-84.
Nyberg, A. (Forthcoming 2017). From Kick-start to U-turn? Gender equality in Sweden. In B. English, M. E. Frederickson, and O. Sanmiguel-Valderrama (Eds.), Gender and work in the global economy. London: Routledge, forthcoming 2017.
Oláh, L. S., & Bernhardt, E. (2008). Sweden: Combining childbearing and gender equality. Demographic Research, 19(28), 1105-1144.
Oláh, L. S., Bernhardt, E. M., & Goldscheider, F. K. (2002). Coresidential paternal roles in industrialized countries: Sweden, Hungary, and the United States. Making Men Into Fathers: Men, Masculinities and the Social Politics of Fatherhood, 25-57.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1998). Women and structural change: New perspectives. Paris, France: Organization for Economic.
Pfau-Effinger, B., & Smidt, M. (2011). Differences in women’s employment patterns and family policies: Eastern and western Germany. Community, Work & Family, 14(2), 217-232.
Sarch, Y. (1997). Outside academia: The changing job market and its influence. Women as Leaders and Managers in Higher Education, 28-34.
Seward, R. R., Yeatts, D. E., & Zottarelli, L. K. (2002). Parental leave and father involvement in child care: Sweden and the United States. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 387-399.
Sundström, M., & Duvander, A. Z. E. (2002). Gender division of childcare and the sharing of parental leave among new parents in Sweden. European Sociological Review, 18(4), 433-447.
Swedin, G. (1996). Modern Swedish fatherhood: The challenges and the opportunities. Reproductive Health Matters, 4(7), 25-33.
Swedish Social Insurance Agency. (2016). Social insurance in figures 2016. Stockholm, Sweden: Lenanders Grafiska AB.
Towns, A. (2002). Paradoxes of (In) equality something is Rotten in the gender equal state of Sweden. Cooperation and Conflict, 37(2), 157-179.
Wells, M. B., & Sarkadi, A. (2012). Do father-friendly policies promote father-friendly child-rearing practices? A review of Swedish parental leave and child health centers. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(1), 25-31.
Wiles, J. A., Wiles, C. R., & Tjernlund, A. (1995). A comparison of gender role portrayals in magazine advertising: The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. European Journal of Marketing, 29(11), 35-49.
Wissö, T., & Plantin, L. (2015). Fathers and parental support in everyday family life: Informal support in Sweden beyond the auspices of the welfare state. Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(2), 267-280.