Abstract
Despite being the first country in the world to introduce paternity leave in 1978, Finland’s current national leave scheme is complex with regard to incentivizing fathers’ take-up. Taking the unique Finnish leave scheme as a case example, this article examines fathers’ motivations and barriers to leave. Although research on fathers’ take-up of leave in divergent leave policy contexts has increased dramatically, fathers’ motivations and barriers to leave have remained underresearched. The article reports on a survey sample of 852 Finnish fathers of infants who were taking paternity, parental, and other forms of leave, drawn from the Population Register Center. Results show that less than 20% of fathers report taking no leave, with more than 80% taking some form of leave. A multinomial logistic regression analysis indicates that father’s work, partner’s education, and family income, along with father’s wish to take a break from work and wish to facilitate mother’s return to work or studies, are the key characteristics and motivations associated with fathers’ take-up of leave. The most common barriers to fathers’ take-up of leave were related to the family’s economic situation and the father’s job. It is suggested that decreasing maternalism in the leave scheme, by extending investment in fathers’ individual well-paid leave weeks, will also help promote greater gender equality for working parents in Finland following the path of Nordic neighbors.
Highlights
During the last three decades, significant changes in fatherhood have occurred across the developed countries
Taking the present Finnish leave scheme as the model, we focus on four types of fathers differentiated by their take-up and length of leave: fathers taking no leave, fathers taking only simultaneous paternity leave, fathers taking some individual paternity leave in addition to simultaneous paternity leave, and fathers sharing care responsibilities with the mother by taking parental and/or childcare leave in addition to simultaneous and individual paternity leave
8% of the fathers described themselves as members of an ethnic minority
Summary
During the last three decades, significant changes in fatherhood have occurred across the developed countries. The Nordic countries— Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark—in which the promotion of gender equality has been on the political agenda for many decades, have often been perceived as trailblazers in encouraging men’s active and caring involvement with their children (Anttonen, Häikiö, & Stefánsson, 2012; Björnberg & Ottesen, 2013; Eydal et al, 2015; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, & Lappegård, 2014; Johansson & Klinth, 2008). Like its Nordic neighbors, has a long history in trying to encourage fathers to take greater responsibility for childcare from the onset of parenthood (Eydal et al, 2015; Haas & Rostgaard, 2011; Lammi-Taskula, 2017).
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