Parental Leave and Father Involvement in Child Care: Sweden and the United States

Abstract

To promote men’s greater involvement with their children, many industrialized nations have mandated employment leave benefits for fathers. Sweden was the first nation to provide paid parental leave to all employed fathers, while in the United States unpaid parental leave has only recently become available from larger employers. Fathers’ parental leave patterns are described and parental leave as a means of getting fathers more involved in child care is assessed for these two very different nations. Government and research sources detail the development and use of parental leave. In 1998, one hundred parents in the U.S. completed questionnaires on their work schedule changes after the arrival of a baby, reactions to these changes, and child care activities. These parents’ data are compared to findings from previous studies in both nations, especially Linda Haas’ 1986 study of parental leave in Sweden. Swedish fathers took more formal parental leave and for longer periods than U.S. fathers. In both nations, fathers who took leave spent more time with their children than fathers who did not take leave, but the differences were not significant. Swedish fathers who took leave consistently shared child care tasks and responsibility for child care with mothers more than Swedish fathers who did not take leave and most of the differences were significant. Among U.S. fathers, those who did not take leave were more likely to share child care tasks and responsibility with mothers, although most of the differences were not significant.