Designing Parental Leave Policy: The Norway Model and the Changing Face of Fatherhood
Berit Brandth and Elin Kvande
Abstract
Many of the Nordic countries have designed parental leave policies in ways that can promote participation of fathers in child care. Norway was the first country to introduce a father-specific leave quota in 1993. This quota is non-transferable and generously paid, and Norway has functioned as a sort of laboratory for testing such radical policies. This book is a collection of research publications from three studies conducted at various stages since the introduction of the quota. It looks at its various design characteristics and possible consequences such as take-up, framing of the leave, wha ... More
Many of the Nordic countries have designed parental leave policies in ways that can promote participation of fathers in child care. Norway was the first country to introduce a father-specific leave quota in 1993. This quota is non-transferable and generously paid, and Norway has functioned as a sort of laboratory for testing such radical policies. This book is a collection of research publications from three studies conducted at various stages since the introduction of the quota. It looks at its various design characteristics and possible consequences such as take-up, framing of the leave, what fathers do when on leave, how they develop as caregivers and competent parents, how working life relates to male employees with care obligations in terms of parental leave, how fathers adapt their leave to work and how immigrant fathers relate to the laws and expectations directed to fathers in Norway. Although the chapters are based on different qualitative studies, they show changes in employed men’s fathering practices over the years and how the parental leave design may have contributed to this change.
Keywords:
Parental leave design,
change,
fathers,
welfare state,
caregiving,
Norway,
masculinities
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781529201574 |
Published to Policy Press Scholarship Online: January 2021 |
DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781529201574.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Berit Brandth, author
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Elin Kvande, author
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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