Family Policy. The Case of Sweden

Abstract

Family policy in Sweden has three major purposes: to promote equal opportunities between men and women, to reduce the costs for parents of raising children, and third to provide affordable and high quality childcare for all children. An adult worker model has been the model for family policy in Sweden since 1960–1970. To accomplish this model, a priority has been to bring women into the labour market. For this goal to be accomplished a wide range of de-familialisation policies has been introduced. Within the framework of social insurance extensive rights to reimbursed parental leave for both mothers and fathers were established in the 1970s and gradually extended over the years. For the last decade policies have focussed on fatherhood and the rights of children to have access to both mothers and fathers. Neutrality has been applied within the system but there was a preference for individualised rights to parental leave in order to encourage fathers to take more parental leave. Public childcare has high coverage and is now an integral part of the educational programmes for children.