Changes in gender equality? Swedish fathers’ parental leave, division of childcare and housework1

Abstract

Sweden is well known for its family policy and this study explores whether fathers’ parental leave is related to later division of childcare and housework. Two materials were used; a panel survey (2003, 2009) and an interview- study (2008). Respondents in the survey had their first child between the waves and the interview-study focused on parents of 2–3 year olds. The survey is analyzed by logistic regression and the interviews by grounded theory. The results indicate that when fathers took long leave parents shared both household tasks and childcare more equally after the leave. Higher expectations of sharing childcare is related to a higher share of divided childcare once becoming parents, although it seems that some tasks are more often shared than others. When the father took long leave both parents mention that the child relates to the father as much as the mother in everyday life.