Abstract

Around the world there is increasing interest in men’s contribution to parenting and caregiving, both as a way to address the lack of equitable distribution in unpaid care work and in recognition of caregiving as a natural part of men’s lives. Men as fathers have been the focus in the last decades of much academic research and of new policy initiatives, including reforms of the parental leave systems which favor a more gender-equal division of leave. This paper investigates how the development of leaves for fathers supports the involvement of fathers in childcare. The paper first discusses the political and cultural factors that have contributed to the increasing interest in active fatherhood, before showing how the Nordic region has been the pioneer in introducing parental leave and the father’s quota. Then the case of Iceland will be presented, the law on fathers rights to quota date back to 2000 and the results of long-term research on fathers participation in care of their new-borns will be presented. The findings show how the active father-oriented policies have affected parental practices and there are clear signs that fathers are carving out a larger space for caring for their children, but mothers still provide the lion’s share of parental care. The paper argues that the individual right to parental leave, a reasonable compensation level for the leave benefits, and, in particular, the father’s quota are all effective policy instruments that contribute to active fatherhood. 

 

The lecture will draw on the following publications:

Arnalds, A. A., Eydal, G. B., Gíslason, I. V. (2022). Paid parental leave in Iceland: Increasing gender equality at home and on the labour market.  In, C. Porte, G. B. Eydal, J. Kauko, D. Nohrstedt, P. Hart and B. S. Tranoy (Eds.). Successful Public Policy in the Nordic Countries: Cases, Lessons, Challenges. Oxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192856296.003.0018

 

Eydal, Guðný Björk, and Tine Rostgaard, 'Childcare by Fathers in the Context of Active Father-Oriented Policies', in Mary Daly, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Family Policy Over The Life Course (2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 Feb. 2023), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197518151.013.35, accessed 15 Aug. 2024.

Bio

Guðný Björk Eydal is Professor at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Iceland. She obtained her doctorate at the Department of Sociology, University of Gothenburg in 2005. Her PhD was on the development of Icelandic family policy. Eydal has published widely on child and family policies with special emphasis on childhood and parenthood. She has also published in the field of disaster and environmental social work. She is currently participating and leading various comparative projects on family policies and directing a long-term research project on the effects of the law on paid