Introduction: Parental leave and social sustainability

Ann-Zofie Duvander, Ásdís A. Arnalds and Johanna Lammi-Taskula

The development of the Nordic welfare model – same or somewhat different?

The Nordic countries have developed family policies with a strong emphasis on gender equality and children’s rights to care from both parents. Paid parental leave and comprehensive childcare policies (ECEC) have been crucial in creating the Nordic “dual earner dual carer societies” where men and women engage both in paid work and in caregiving (Eydal et al., 2018, Ellingsæter, 2024). The Nordic countries formally collaborate on promoting gender equality and children’s wellbeing through the Nordic Council, an official entity for inter-parliamentary cooperation, and the Nordic Council of Ministers, which includes all five Nordic countries and the three autonomous regions (the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland).

When viewed from the outside, the Nordic family policies seem similar, as they share similar goals of gender equality, in terms of women’s labour market participation and men’s involvement in care (Ellingsæter, 2024). However, from a more detailed and closer view, differences in policy designs become apparent. These differences are important as they may explain, and be explained by, varying social, economic and demographic conditions. Country-specific policies have also developed in parallel with different societal narratives and discussions about the future. Furthermore, although scholars and policy makers today agree on aiming for a social sustainable future, the means may differ. Regarding family policy, the goal of gender equality must compete with, or at least be combined with, other sustainable outcomes. How this unfolds will depend on the current policy and its implementation.

In this volume, we will focus on the development of paid parental leave, a component of family policies in all the Nordic countries that requires constant study due to numerous reforms and changing patterns of leave usage over time. We will demonstrate how the development of paid parental leave and its societal contexts vary over time and between the Nordic countries. A historical perspective will serve the understanding of the development and will show the different pace, different progress and regress depending on changing political governing, and on compromises between political ideas. It is clear that the development is not a straight line of progression. Ellingsæter (2024) has recently traced the development of Nordic policies related to families from a start in the 19^th century with efforts to protect children and mothers. In the first half of the 20^th century the focus was on increased state responsibility and gendered legislation. This was followed by universal policies and a focus on women’s right to work. In the 1970s, the idea of gender equality gained prominence, resulting in family and care policies that supported women’s participation in paid labour. By the 1990s, the Nordic welfare state had taken a new turn, where workfare, stressing the duty to work, was combined with an openness to privatisation of many welfare institutions such as early childhood education and care (ECEC). While general trends can be identified, the variation in timing and degree of change is considerable between the countries.

The development in the 1970s marked the beginning of dual earner-dual carer policies, where the Nordic countries are forerunners. These policies include a combination of paid parental leave, maternity and paternity leaves, early childhood education and care (ECEC), and cash-for-care policies. While these components complement each other, they can sometimes be seen as conflicting. Paid parental leave is a major component, especially when combined with available and affordable ECEC of relatively high quality. A turning point for parental leave occurred in the 1990s, when quotas for fathers (and mothers) were first introduced. The Nordic countries have taken different paths and developed policies at varying speeds, particularly regarding quotas. A key factor explaining these differences is how the issue of freedom of choice has been addressed. Sometimes, the freedom to choose childcare arrangements has been used as an argument against quotas in parental leave. Additionally, aspects such as children’s rights, the inclusion of new family constellations, and economic security are important goals that may lead to different policy directions. The prominence of these goals in the debate around parental leave has varied and continues to vary today.

The general definition of parental leave includes two basic components: A right to take time off from work with job protection to take care of one’s young child, and economic benefits to compensate for lost income during leave. There is, however, variation in the leave terminology used in different countries, and this is also the case in the Nordic countries. The early form of parental leave was related to maternity protection (Dobrotic et al., 2022), available for only mothers and thus called “maternity leave”. To some extent this was transformed to a policy also available to fathers in the 1970’s. This was done both as a gender-neutral “parental leave” and as a “paternity leave”. The gender-neutral parental leave was in practice nevertheless mainly used by mothers. Paternity leave was only some days or weeks and usually taken simultaneously with the mother, thus promoting a supporting role for the father rather than independent care responsibility.

To promote the take-up of leave by fathers, leave quotas were, as mentioned, introduced in the 1990’s. The quota is a parental leave period that is reserved for either parent and is non-transferable, that is, forfeited if not used by the receiving parent. As the Nordic countries have moved towards gender-neutral, less heteronormative terminology the term “maternity leave” has been replaced by “pregnancy leave” or “birth leave”, “paternity leave” has been replaced by “simultaneous parental leave” or for instance “10 days in relation to birth”. The longer parental leave is divided into equal quotas for both parents referring to the two parents rather than the mother and the father. However, a part of the leave is still transferable between parents, resulting in gendered leave use patterns.

Building on the long history of paid parental leave in the Nordic countries, we focus on the last 20 years. This period begins when paid parental leave was already introduced and established, and has since developed, been reformed, and debated—sometimes in similar ways and sometimes differently across the Nordic countries. Over 15 years ago, more or less the same group of authors wrote a volume titled Parental Leave, Childcare and Gender Equality in the Nordic Countries, published by the Nordic Council of Ministers (Gíslason & Eydal, 2011). The content included the development of parental leave, childcare (or ECEC), cash-for-care policies, children's rights, and the political agendas for family policies. At that time, gender equality and children’s best interests were still sometimes seen as conflicting. Parental leave was viewed as a prerequisite for women's labour market participation and men’s sharing of care for newborn children. The volume provided a coherent review of the situation in the Nordic countries, the debate, and research on the issue. It showed that the use of paid parental leave and cash-for-care policies differed by gender and that the political discussion was distinct in various countries. At the time, gender equality mainly meant equal rights in the labour market for women and men: equal pay for the same jobs, the same career possibilities, and the same opportunities to combine work and family life. Care and children’s best interests were increasingly integrated into the concept of gender equality but needed to be emphasized, as was done repeatedly in the volume. The importance of fathers’ care and responsibility sometimes still had to be highlighted when discussing gender equality. We believe the volume’s contribution was not only to provide information and present research findings on the issues but also, and perhaps mainly, to underscore the importance of viewing both care and work as fundamental when discussing gender equality.

But what has happened since then? All the Nordic countries have advanced their policies towards gender equality and the paid parental leave is increasingly shared between the parents. Nevertheless, there seems to be quite a long way to gender equal sharing of leave and other tasks related to children in all the countries. Fathers’ importance is increasingly assumed, and mothers’ right and encouragement to labour market participation is rarely challenged today. But this has to be seen in the light of the more recent development towards gender-neutrality. To regulate the leave to be used by two parents of equal importance means that mothers and fathers are given equal rights, and this may be seen as a step towards gender equality. However, the same equal rights and gender-neutral language may hide the differences that still exists in how childcare is shared by gender.

We may now be at a pivotal moment when crucial political decisions regarding the future of family policy, specifically parental leave, are being made. These decisions will link paid parental leave policies to various aspects of society and aim for a sustainable future in different ways. Our goal in this volume is to provide a description and analysis of the developments over the last 20 years. We will connect this development to a discussion on how parental leave policies can contribute to sustainable development.

Paid parental leave and ECEC development in the Nordic countries

A major interest and focus within parental leave policies is gender-equal usage. One measure of this is the proportion of leave taken by fathers. Note that this is just one dimension and does not account for factors such as the length of leave, benefit levels, and eligibility criteria. Additionally, changing fertility rates can influence this measure, as fathers most often use leave during the second year of the child’s life. Therefore, an increased share of leave taken by fathers may simply indicate a declining birth rate.

Norway was the first country in the Nordics to introduce a quota for fathers, but it was not until 2022 that quotas for both parents were included in the leave schemes in all the Nordic countries. In 2022, Denmark introduced an 8-week quota and Finland expanded the quota to 16 weeks. Iceland has stepwise extended the quota to today’s 18 weeks, along with extending the total leave length. In Norway the quota’s development has been back and forth, from being 14 weeks in the start of the period to being reduced to 10 weeks in 2014 and then extended to its current level, 15 weeks, in 2018. In Sweden, the fathers’ quota has been 13 weeks since 2016 (Ellingsæter, 2024).

In Figure 1 the development of fathers’ share of leave use in the Nordic countries is compared. As can be seen, fathers in Iceland used approximately one third of the leave period in the beginning of the 2000s but when Iceland was hit by the financial crisis in the fall of 2008 the share decreased, perhaps foremost as the economic leave compensation was severely lowered. Nevertheless, since 2000 Iceland has been the forerunner to the other Nordic fathers regarding this measure, with Swedish fathers catching up around ten years into the new millennium. The pattern of Norwegian fathers follows the policy’s reforms quite visibly as can specifically be seen with the reduced quota from 2014, as well as the increased quota in 2018. Denmark and Finland are laggards but recent changes in these countries are likely to show increased use by fathers.

Figure 1. Percentage of the total number of parental leave days used by fathers in the Nordic countries in 2003-2022

Source: Nordic Statistics, 2024

Note: The database does not provide information on Denmark after 2016

In addition to looking at the development of sharing of the paid parental leave, we also need to consider the use of ECEC in the Nordics. These two policy areas are closely related and can be seen as part of the same package; both are needed for either to be used efficiently. Ideally, ECEC is available when the paid parental leave ends and this is increasingly the case. As we can see in Figure 2, the participation rate of children from 3 years of age is almost universal in all the Nordic countries. For the younger children, there has been more development the last 10 years. In all the countries, except Denmark, the participation rate for children under 3 has increased over the period. Denmark has seen a somewhat reduced use of ECEC among young children but still has among the highest participation rates in the Nordics. Finland stands out with low participation rates although it has increased somewhat.

Figure 2. Enrolment rate in ECEC in the Nordic countries in 2013 and 2022 (% of age group)

Source: Dobrotić et al., 2024.

Challenges

The situation today is markedly different from what it was two decades ago. At that time, most Nordic countries were emerging from the economic crisis of the 1990s, which had a significant impact on family policy development. Fertility rates also decreased during the 1990s, particularly in Sweden (Andersson et al., 2009). This decline was largely attributed to the financial situation, where individual circumstances, general societal conditions, and local contexts all played a role. Today, there are major challenges regarding birth rates and the labour market situation. In all Nordic countries, birth rates have been falling over the last decades, with the most dramatic decline in Finland and the least in Norway (Jalovaara et al., 2019). However, it appears that today’s declining birth rates are due to different reasons, as the economy is no longer in the previous severe state. Despite having sufficient economic stability to sustain a family, many young couples still refrain from having children. In 2023, the total fertility rate ranged from 1.25 in Finland to 1.59 in Iceland and was somewhat higher in the autonomous regions (the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland). This new northern query of why birth rates are declining occupies demographers, and many insightful studies are relevant on the issue (see, for instance, Gortfelder et al., 2024; Oláh & Neyer, 2021; Alderotti et al., 2021). However, there does not seem to be a universal explanation for the declining birth rate. 'Classical' concerns over the reconciliation of work and family life are still evident as explanations but are now situated in a new labour market context of platform economy and precarious work, with fewer and less secure labour market rights. New explanations revolve around uncertainty in a much wider area than the individual economic situation, including the general economy, concerns over climate change, and political unrest in the world (Matysiak & Vignoli, 2024). Additionally, a cultural shift towards more emphasis on parents’ increased time and investment in children may further seem unappealing to some (Símonardóttir, 2024). The role of parental leave policy in creating possibilities for parenthood may thus have changed.

Regarding the labour market, it is often argued that there is more insecurity today. However, it is important to distinguish between objective measures of labour market characteristics and trends, and the perception of these factors. All the Nordic countries have similar employment rates to the EU average for men and higher rates for women. The levels range from the lowest in Finland, with 78.3% for men and 78.1% for women, to the highest in Iceland, with 88.2% for men and 82.1% for women (Nordic Statistics Database, 2023). Nevertheless, it seems increasingly difficult to find a stable labour market position or a secure full-time job. The gig sector, platform economy, and temporary employment are becoming significant parts of the labour market and may serve as gateways to the more traditional, secure, and stable labour market. At the same time, temporary reduced work engagement, such as sick leave, part-time work, unemployment spells, and returning to further studies, seems to be becoming more common. Thus, instability and mobility in the labour market may indicate that the conditions (and preferences) for a secure full-time job have changed. Indeed, flexibility may also be desired by some groups as it creates possibilities to combine work with other parts of life that earlier generations often had to sacrifice. Examples include traveling, engaging in time-consuming hobbies, and so on. However, the new situation primarily creates new exclusions and social inequalities in the labour market, often based on immigrant status and educational level, while the old inequalities based on gender persist in a largely gender-segregated labour market. This puts parental leave in a different context, and the current setup may not work as well for large groups of parents

Another related dimension of the development that is relevant to the functioning of parental leave policies is the development of child poverty, sometimes connected to the immigration trends. An example here is the high share of immigrant mothers in Sweden using the leave at the basic flat rate indicating that they did not work before becoming parents, and often of a precarious economic situation.

Thus, when we consider the development of the paid parental leave in the various Nordic countries today, we need to not only connect it to the “usual suspects” of labour market and fertility trends, but also to consider how they influence the parental leave use along with other sources of insecurity, ranging from housing prospects to climate anxiety and war threats, and cultural transformations in parenting. Intensive parenting and ecological anxiety are examples of such influences on normative ideas of parenthood.

Social sustainability – a useful concept?

To consider a sustainable future as based on social, economic and ecological needs is often seen as originating in the Brundtland report (UN, 1987). The report argues for the urgency of considering economic, social and ecological justice together and not compromise future generations when striving to achieve such justice for the present situation. While family policy research has a long tradition of discussing how present economic and social equality should be attained in combination, there is less research so far that consider long term aspects of sustainability and even less that include the ecological aspect. But recently some studies have started to speak about how social policy is related to climate sustainability (Boström, 2012, Koch, 2022, Hirvilammi et al., 2023) and family policy is obviously an intrinsic part of social policy. Family policy, including parental leave, can be seen as part of the general ecological-social policy discussion, but may also contribute to the discussion with the crucial dimension of caring for the very concrete future that is entailed in children. Thus, the argument for integrating ecological, social and economic sustainability when considering the future of paid parental leave is relevant but needs development. Reproduction is sometimes used as the link between these three dimensions of sustainability, as environmental factors pose risks for pregnancy and birth, especially for those in the most vulnerable situation (Sasser, 2024) and in the literature, parenthood and potential future hazards related to climate change, have been discussed together (Björklund, 2024).

A major aspect of sustainability is to view challenges such as gender inequality, social inequalities and labour market difficulties as interconnected. Also, sustainability incentivizes goals on health and wellbeing, decent work, economic growth, and fertility, which should be considered simultaneously and as connected. Connecting a broader palette of goals that can be addressed with paid parental leave is a major advancement, and using the concept of sustainability to make such a connection is helpful. In fact, various aspects of social and economic sustainability have been addressed in parental leave policy research. For example, research on the gendered use of leave and the outcomes of leave take-up on women’s labour market participation and men’s informal care participation directly addresses the UN sustainable development goals of increasing gender equality. Other goals are related to reduced poverty and economic inequalities. Parental leave policies address these goals by securing payments to parents while they withdraw from the labour market to care for their young children. Leave policy research has addressed poverty and social inequalities by placing focus on how entitlements and payments vary according to labour market attachment and family form. Increased health and well-being are another sustainable development goal that have been addressed in research on the outcomes of paid parental leave (see for example Lindbeck et al., 2018). While sustainability is a useful concept for directing leave policy research towards various interconnecting factors that matter for the future, it also demands innovative and constructive thinking, within a more rigid set of policy analysis than we are used to.

We attempt to approach the development of paid parental leave in the Nordic countries with a sustainability approach, primarily considering the dimensions of gender, social and economic inequality together. The sustainability approach raises concerns about fertility choices and capabilities, economic and social inequality, decent work and individual health and wellbeing. At the same time, we need to consider how these challenges of “a good life” translate to the societal level where questions of economic growth, gender and social equality and climate change are to be considered. Two immediate connections where paid parental leave plays a role are apparent, one regarding fertility and one regarding the structure of family policy. These two aspects are interdependent.

Regarding fertility, parental leave aims to make the combination of children and work possible for men and women by providing economic security and time during the early period of a child’s life. On a societal level, this may lead to stable and relatively high fertility, ensuring a sustainable population composition and a balanced age dependency ratio. In short, fertility close to the reproduction rate will provide the workforce of the future. However, if young men and women refrain from parenthood due to climate concerns, the current parental leave policies may not be very helpful. Examples from the developed world include birth strikes and media coverage of the challenges of having children during a climate crisis (Sasser, 2024). Such concerns are likely not evenly distributed, and reproductive injustice will amplify social and economic inequalities, as climate change is likely to impact already vulnerable groups in society. While the response to climate anxiety and its effects on childbearing will come from policies and political actions beyond family policy, it should be noted that universal and generous parental leave may improve health and contribute to achieving some of the UN sustainability goals (Heymann et al., 2017). This is likely beneficial for globally balanced fertility and ecological goals, but may be less significant in the Nordic countries, where well-developed family policies are more or less assumed today.

In the Nordic countries, parental leave is supported by high tax revenues, high labour force participation, and economic growth. However, economic growth often seems at odds with ecological sustainability, as it can increase the strain on nature. The incentive to combine work and care to provide for children may conflict with climate concerns, making it difficult to balance good parenthood with a climate-friendly lifestyle (Björklund, 2024). Björklund (2024) highlights examples in the literature of conflicting goals for parents, concluding that norms stemming from family policy (to provide economically) often trump ecological concerns. In this bleak view of the future of societies built on economic growth, one way forward may be to value care at the same level as paid work. Upgrading the concept of care could help find a balance between ecological, economic, and social sustainability. This upgrading needs to go hand in hand with continued development of gender equality, even in the most gender-equal contexts, such as the Nordic countries. Much theoretical and empirical work is needed, but important contributions on how to broaden the concept have been initiated (Folbre, 2024; Tronto, 2013; Doucet, 2023a, 2023b; Doucet & Duvander, 2022).

The sustainability frame makes us affirm that the social and economic inequalities created in todays’ Nordic countries, and specifically in the labour market, need to be related to the ecological situation. We welcome the discussion on how these matters for the analysis of paid parental leave, here and in the years to come.

Nordic cooperation on sustainable development

The Nordic countries have set common goals towards a sustainable future. In 2020 the Nordic Council of Ministers presented its actions for 2021 to 2024, with the goal of reaching the vision of the Nordic region becoming the most integrated and sustainable region world-wide, by 2030. In the action plan it was stressed that for the Nordic region to become socially sustainable, its inhabitants must feel safe, and that health and well-being must be promoted. A focus was placed on safeguarding and further developing the Nordic welfare model, particularly with regards to access and services for vulnerable children, young people and adults. Efforts also included enhancing social inclusion and supporting the well-being of children and young people. The Nordic Council of Ministers emphasized the need for further cooperation on health, and the need to address challenges stemming from an aging population. In all its activities, the Nordic Council of Ministers aimed to integrate sustainable development, gender equality and children’s rights (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2020).

Despite an emphasis on building a socially sustainable Nordic Region, and the emphasis on equal access to benefits and services that promote equality, previous projects have not produced knowledge about the significance of paid parental leave for social sustainability in the region. This report aims to address this gap in knowledge by highlighting the need to focus on children’s first years of life, as children are the future and are therefore at the heart of social sustainability.

Role of paid parental leave for sustainable development

We argue for the study of paid parental leave as a crucial element in regard to social sustainability. Fertility, gender equality and work-life balance are examples which paid parental leave can address and has addressed for some time. Still, paid parental leave and other types of family policy are largely missing from the agenda of social sustainability, which is a puzzle, as the aspect of children is a major part of a sustainable future. It is therefore important to address to what extent the Nordic countries have been able to create and reform parental leave policies that make it possible to have children for those who so desire, and to make it possible to care for the children in a sustainable way, for the family and for the labour market. Can anything be more at the core of the idea of sustainability? Therefore, in this volume we will follow up on the earlier publication on parental leave and ECEC in the Nordics (Gíslason & Eydal, 2011) to update how to develop family policy in the most sustainable way, not just socially but also economically and ecologically.

We have taken the approach of country specific chapters in which we cover a number of relevant dimensions of the policy development to structure the chapters in the same way. However, new and varied policy trends, as well as other country variations are important in the country specific narratives. We will end with concluding on how this relates to the more recent concept of sustainability. Our main argument is that the role of paid parental leave may change, and if it changes, we should make sure to study the various aspects of this change and its outcomes. As researchers it is our job to point to the problems, to what we have gained and what advantages of the present systems that are to be, yes, sustained.

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