Designing Parental Leave Policy: The Norway Model and the Changing Face of Fatherhood

Description

Part of the Sociology of Children and Famlies series, this compelling book examines parental leave policies in Nordic countries, looking at how these laws encourage men towards life courses with greater care responsibilities and considers the impact that these policies have had on gender equality and how they have led to a re-gendering of men by promoting 'caring masculinities'. Nordic countries lead the way in facilitating better work-family integration through their design of parental leave policies that encourage men towards life courses with greater care responsibilities. Bringing together 24 years of the author's team's research findings to answer key questions for society about fatherhood today, this is the first book of its kind with an international scope while centring Norway's lead in policy agendas relating to fathers. Norway was the first country to introduce leave for fathers in 1993 and here, Brandth and Kvande draw on rich data, including interviews with fathers to analyse its affects.

Elin Kvande is Professor at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Her research interests include dynamics and change in gender relations in organizations, welfare state policies and fathers' use of care policies. Berit Brandth is Professor Emerita at Department of Sociology and Political Science at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her main areas of interest include work, family and care policies with a special focus on fathering and parental leave, as well as rural gender studies.

"Through this original study of fathering and care practices in the welfare state, the authors make an important contribution to an evolving field of research on everyday family life." Allan Westerling, Roskilde University