Local Variation in Gendered Family Policy Use: Evidence of Local Gender Contracts?

Karen Haandrikman,Ann-Zofie Duvander,Natasha A Webster

doi:10.1007/s40980-021-00082-x

Abstract

A central and unique part of Sweden’s family policy programme is care leave that working parents can use when children are sick and cannot attend (pre)school. The gender-equal policy entails that parents may divide the leave as they see fit. However, mothers and fathers do not share care leave equally and care leave patterns may vary geographically. The aim of this paper is to examine the interaction between gendered care leave and geographical context using the theory of gender contracts. We ask how geographical variation in fathers’ share of care leave varies by scale, and how both individual factors and geographical determinants, representing local gender contracts, are associated with fathers’ share of care leave. Distinctive from previous work, we use geocoded full-population register data and individualized neighbourhoods at multiple scales in order to be able to better measure contextual effects on care leave use. We find substantial spatial variation in fathers’ share of care leave, with clustering depending on scale level. Using the nearest 200 fathers with young children, a factor analysis summarizes local gender contracts into three factors labelled as elite, marginalization and private sector. Results show that especially living in local gender contract areas identified as “marginalized” positively affects fathers’ share of care leave. Living in the most segregated neighbourhoods has substantial effects on fathers’ share of care leave, but overall, neighbourhood effects are moderate. A gender contract perspective shows negotiations resulting from locally clustered gendered norms and relative resources between partners influence who stays home with sick children.

Highlights

In Sweden, family policies aim at gender equality with mothers and fathers having the same rights to childcare, parental leave and other benefits of the family policy system no matter where one resides in the country
We have examined how care leave is utilized by couples locally, by investigating whether fathers’ share of care leave use is associated with both individual-level determinants based on relative resources within the household, and neighbourhood-level operationalisations of the local gender contract
Part of our contribution was enabled by developments in geocoded big data, which open up new ways to examine local care leave use

Summary

Introduction

In Sweden, family policies aim at gender equality with mothers and fathers having the same rights to childcare, parental leave and other benefits of the family policy system no matter where one resides in the country. Universal and subsidized childcare is guaranteed in all municipalities, and nationally organized parental leave, paid out of employers’ contributions, are crucial parts of this policy. Another less studied but important part of the parental leave system is care leave that parents can use in case a child is sick and cannot attend preschool. The paper examines how both individual factors and geographically clustered gender contracts explain men’s uptake of care leave. The spatial articulation of gender relations has largely been neglected in earlier studies, there are several reasons to assume that gendered care leave varies by geographically clustered norms and contracts. Gender and space are co-constructed at the local level (Massey, 2005), and gender inequality has been found to vary across countries, spaces and between neighbourhoods (Duncan, 2000)

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