Abstract
Swedish farming fathers are facing new expectations about their level of involvement in their children's upbringing – expectations of their own, but also arising from gender equality policy and shifting societal norms. A gender-neutral parental leave scheme has been in place in Sweden since 1974 and gives parents a generous opportunity to take paid time off work to stay at home with their children. Generally, however, fathers tend to take only a small share of the days allotted for parental leave, with farming farmers among those making least use of this opportunity. In this paper we explore farmers' expectations of fatherhood and how different types of farm management can be combined with parenting. The paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with three generations of farmers. Our results indicate that the notion of involved fatherhood, i.e. being emotionally present and nurturing, is identified by farmers as a societal norm laid on farming fathers today, and that farmers indeed want to pursue involved fatherhood. We conclude that farm operators face several barriers to fulfilling the ideal of involved fatherhood, especially related to the difficulties of being able to afford and find a competent replacement during long periods of parental leave. However, two types of farms stand out as offering opportunities to overcome these issues: farms run as corporations where the farm operator is employed, and small farms with a high degree of flexibility in how time is spent during the day or over the year.
Highlights
Swedish farming fathers are facing new expectations about their level of involvement in their children’s up bringing – expectations of their own, and arising from gender equality policy and shifting societal norms
“On average, male farmers take 41 days of parental leave compared to a national average of 69 days”, according to an article in the Swedish agriculture trade magazine Land published on April 4, 2019
The above-mentioned trade magazine article about farming fathers taking far less than their share of paternity leave con tinues with a discussion that this is a problem that the farming sector should take seriously and argues that something needs to be done to increase the possibilities for farming fathers to take parental leave
Summary
“On average, male farmers take 41 days of parental leave compared to a national average of 69 days”, according to an article in the Swedish agriculture trade magazine Land published on April 4, 2019. To encourage fathers to take a more active role in childcare and increase gender equality, the Swedish government reformed the parental leave scheme so that each parent is allotted a minimum number of days that cannot be transferred to their partner. It emerged as an important issue that the interviewees themselves raised when asked questions about their ex pectations regarding farm succession, whether or not children are involved in farm work and are being socialised to farming, and what they considered the large societal changes and shifting values to have been since the early 1990s This led to an expansion of the ques tions regarding parental leave and the inclusion of parenting practices in the interview guide. This allows us to illustrate how farmers’ fathering practices are played out on farms with different farm management strategies, and to discuss the implications of this for the future devel opment of farming, as well as the possibilities for farming fathers to become more involved parents
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