Män som "pappor" och kvinnor som "föräldrar"

Abstract

It is now 25 years since it became possible for men to take parental leave. However, it is women who still make use of 90% of the days allowed. My argument is that the four most cominon assumptions about the obstacles for men to take leave - traditional sex roles, employers' attitudes, financial reasons, and women's wishes - are not sufficient to explain this phenomenon. To understand the different implications of the use of paren tal leave by men and women we need to consider three social relations: the relation between production and reproduction, the relation of men and women to production and reproduction and the gender relation. Several mechanisms within different social relations can explain attitudes to parental leave. Attitudes can in turn affect the taking of parental leave, but it is only the mechanisms of the gender relation that can explain why women to a much greater extent than men take parental leave. The different positions occupied by men and women within the social gender relation give men freedom of choice whereas women have to adjust to the circumstances in which they and their families find themselves. The flexibility allowed by the parental insurance means different things for men and women. Men have flexibility and can choose if, when and for how long they will be on parental leave. Their freedom of choice presupposes, however, that women are flexible, adaptable and prepared to take the responsibility of parenthood. In other words there are structural differences in men's and women's relation to parenthood. Men are therefore "daddies" whereas women are "parents". This does not necessarily apply at the individual level however. Under certain circumstances women can have flexibility and be "mummies" whereas men can be flexible "parents". Equal use of paren tal leave in it.seII will not have any influence on the social gender relation. What is needed is equality of conditions to start with. Men may have become more family orientated, but apparent changes in masculinities must be considered in the light of men's continuing structural power.