Come home, dad ...

Gender researcher Roger Klinth has studied campaigns in Sweden trying to encourage fathers to take their parental leave entitlement as provided by law.

Even the manliest of all men can be at home with the kids.
Being a father on paternity leave is character-building – fathers somehow become better people afterwards, even better career men.
And give up that old myth about the “man’s role”! What will men regret on their deathbed: missed overtime or missed relationships with their children?
But the most important thing is equal parenting, a sharing of responsibilities.
That has been the argument put forward in campaigns driven by the Swedish Government Offices, national authorities, trade unions and others since the 1970s – trying to encourage fathers to take their parental leave entitlement as provided by law.

There have been many campaigns through the years. Gender and equality researcher Roger Klinth has studied 13 national campaigns and some 20 regional ones from a social-historical perspective. His research has led to the release of a new book, entitled (in Swedish) Svenska fäder mellan politiska visioner och levd verklighet (“Swedish fathers caught between political visions and real life”).
Roger Klinth has studied paternal leave before. His dissertation, Göra pappa med barn (“Making Daddy Pregnant”), published in 2002, focused on the Swedish political history of paternal leave, and how some¬thing that for many years had been politicly impossible became a reality in 1974.
Swedish fathers were given the statutory right for paid parental leave.
“It was a controversial decision that received a lot of attention, not least of which in the European press”, says Roger Klinth.
But in Sweden there were few political opponents when the decision was finally made. The problem was rather how to get fathers to stay at home from work.

Roger Klinth

That is where the campaigns come in.
Roger Klinth explains: “In the middle of the 1970s, a lively discussion was under way about goals, methods and state control. Nobody wanted to go so far as to force men to take the same amount of leave as women.”
The alternative was to influence public opinion and bring about a change of attitudes. The campaigns were a phenomenon unique to Sweden; in Norway, which also introduced paternal leave towards the end of the 1970s, no equivalent was to be found; nor was there anything similar in Denmark, which followed suit in the mid 1980s.
“The Swedish campaigns were never evaluated, so we know little about whether or not they had any practical results. They do, however, say something about the notions of society.”
In 1976, the first campaign put masculinity in the spotlight. The posters of the time show heavyweight lifter Lennart “Hoa-Hoa” Dahlgren posing with bulging muscles and a baby on his arm. Other pictures show impressive-looking sport prams, or the creative engineering solutions of a stay-at-home dad in the kitchen.

Another angle taken by the campaigns can be referred to as “project dad” – being home with the child became a kind of personal training.
“Parental leave for men is seen as an asset in their working life – it is justified from a management point of view, whilst the same time off for women is more of a burden ...”
An additional thought that comes out in the campaigns is the idea of male self-deception; the duty of supporting the family as a man trap.
“The approach used is existential questions about what really matters in life: working 80 hours a week, or close relationships?”

Lying behind these arguments was the criticism at the time that was aimed at the traditional male role. The campaigns posed straight questions, such as: “What do you think you will regret on your deathbed?”
Towards the end of the 1990s, the gender perspectives started making an impact. The government even provided regulations stipulating that officials should be trained in gender issues.
“And it actually made a difference”, says Roger Klinth. “Messages became more gender neutral and no longer dealt solely with getting men to take parental leave. They now dealt with the whole issue of equal parenting, something that is not simply a possibility but a duty and responsibility.”

One prescribed month of paternal leave was introduced in 1995. Seven years later, it became two. “Half each”, say the slogans of the 2000s.
But the idea that men would be “forced” to stay at home with the children is still provocative. Words like “force” are virtually unthinkable when it comes to men’s parental leave.
“There is a difference in how people view gender and parenthood. Increasing the quota is still controversial, so it is much simpler for the politicians to just display that they have the power to act by investing a few more million in new campaigns.”
Most men take their first two months of paternal leave, but the majority leave it at that. So, today, a particularly clear educational aim is evident in the campaigns.
“It is all to do with enlightenment, to tell people that men are entitled to more than two months off. Efforts are taken to ensure that the message is positive and doesn’t impose guilt upon men who choose to work instead.”

And what results are there to show from all these campaigns?
“I believe that they are quite ineffective. The campaigns constitute a tiny voice that is being drowned out amongst the cultural bedlam that shapes ideas about gender and parenthood. Parenting is also a question of age – and generations”, says Roger Klinth.
In our society, it is possible to combine a successful career with having children. Roger Klinth has conducted a number of interviews with men who have chosen to stay at home with their children for an extended period of time.
“It is not uncommon for fathers who have their careers behind them to have a more positive attitude towards fatherhood, but a change is also noticeable amongst many younger men who are not brought up so strictly in old gender patterns.”

Page responsible: anna.nilsen@liu.se
Last updated: Fri Jan 20 16:26:25 CET 2012