If parental leave in Sweden is to become more equal, the regulatory framework needs to be changed. At least that is the opinion of the Social Insurance Agency, which in a new report warns that the number of men taking leave is no longer increasing.
Parental insurance was introduced in 1974 and since then more and more men have started to take advantage of it, but never completely without reason. Instead, various types of reforms have increased the incentives for parental leave for men in particular.
An example of such is when reserved days were introduced in parental insurance. Another example is the equality bonus, which has now been removed.
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News24 have talked to Cecilia Sobockipress secretary at Försäkringskassan, about what may need to be done to reduce the difference between men and women in parental leave.
– The government has political goals both for gender equality policy and for economic family policy. One goal is that the economic family policy should contribute to more equal parenting and another is that there should be an even distribution of the unpaid domestic and care work, she says, and continues:
– The Swedish Social Insurance Agency is tasked with strengthening the conditions for an equal use of the parental allowance.
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Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT. New rules may be introduced: “Up to the government to decide”
In 2014, women took 78 percent of parental leave during the child’s first two years. The same figure was 75 percent in 2021. Since then, the number of women who have taken parental leave has neither increased nor decreased significantly.
Reforms are now being called for at Försäkringskassan.
– We have looked at various possible changes – more regulated days, financial incentives such as an equality bonus or changes in age limits and the right to unpaid leave. It is up to the government to decide if any, and if so which, changes are to be implemented, says Sobocki to Nyheter24.
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Here is the authority’s proposal
Which reform may be relevant depends on what the government wants to achieve, for example it could be about getting women to return to work more quickly or about increasing fathers’ involvement in nursing.
One of the proposals put forward by Försäkringskassan involves increased regulation of the right to unpaid parental leave.
– Currently, parents have the right to be off during the child’s first 18 months without using parental allowance. A change could be that the right to time off is based on using parental allowance, says Sobocki.
Another proposal concerns increasing the number of reserved days, writes The insurance fund.
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