Sweden has long been one of the world's most equal and family-friendly countries. Despite this, significant differences remain between women and men in terms of earnings, career opportunities, unpaid care work, health and risk. How is that possible, and could it relate to the low birth rates?
Now the Investigation for a future with children publishes the anthology "A new time, new challenges". A central conclusion is that equality and family policy needs to be modernized to respond to the conditions today's young adults face. Many of the reforms that made Sweden an international role model were designed in the 1970s and for a society that no longer exists.
Today's young people face different conditions than their parents. The road to adulthood has become longer. Training times have been extended, establishment in the labor market is now happening later and for many it has become more difficult to get a home. More and more people are studying for longer. Of the students at the country's colleges and universities, 60 percent are women.
In addition, entry into paid work in Sweden only occurs on average at the age of 28, which shows that the establishment in the labor market nowadays often takes place relatively late in life. At the same time, the biological time window for having children has not changed. The result is a growing imbalance between the time of establishment in adult life and the opportunities for family formation.
For those who are still studying, lack a secure position on the labor market or have not found a home, it only partially helps that the benefits are generous once the child is born
Today's family policy is designed to support those who already have children and are established in the labor and housing markets. But if the obstacles arise before you get there, the measures will be too late. For those who are still studying, lack a secure position on the labor market or have not found a home, it only partially helps that the supports are generous once the child is born. Family policy cannot therefore be seen in isolation from labor market, education and housing policy. The regulations must also work for students, people with temporary or irregular employment and others who have not yet had time to fully establish themselves.
Equality policy is about giving both women and men the conditions to live the lives they want, with or without children, but must also ensure that the consequences of the same choice are distributed evenly.
One of the anthology's most central themes is the unequal distribution of risk between women and men. Starting a family is a joint decision, but the risks and consequences are far from evenly distributed. For women, parenthood is still associated with greater financial costs through lower lifetime earnings, weaker career development and lower pensions. Women also carry out a greater proportion of the unpaid domestic and care work and bear other risks linked to pregnancy, health and sick leave. Added to this are gender differences in exposure to sexual violence, digital violations and sexual expectations.
Starting a family is a joint decision, but the risks and consequences are far from evenly distributed
The same decision to have a child can therefore have very different long-term consequences for the mother and the father. Formally equal rights are not sufficient if the costs and risks of the same life choice are systematically different between women and men. Parental insurance should therefore be modernized so that more fathers actually take leave and share responsibility for the children from the start.
Family policy remains important. Parental insurance and the preschool need to be generous, predictable and better adapted to different degrees of labor market attachment, but also to be more flexible to meet parents' different needs and changed preferences. Even students and individuals with a weak connection to the labor market must have better financial conditions to be able to become parents. The pre-school needs to be adapted to parents and single people who work irregular working hours or shifts, but reasonably also be able to relieve parents who need to run errands or who need to attend an early morning meeting.
But an equally big challenge is to create better conditions for young people before they become parents. This means making it easier for young adults to enter the labor and housing market, and to adapt the education system to the needs of the future through shorter and alternative education paths as a complement to long university educations. But it is also about creating systems that provide basic security also for those who do not yet have a firm foothold in the labor market.
Digitization has in a short time changed the way young people live, socialize and form couple relationships. Social media creates new opportunities but at the same time competes for time and attention with physical meetings. Digitization has changed both the idea of ââthe good life and how norms and values ââare formed. Norms are shaped today to a great extent in digital environments where young people meet and compare themselves to a variety of lifestyles and ideals. It can also affect ideas about family formation and what place parenthood has in an attractive and meaningful life.
The anthology describes how young women and men stand further apart politically, while at the same time shared values ââand norms have become more important in a relationship as economic factors play a smaller role in couple formation. The increasing availability of pornography has changed norms around gender roles, sexuality and relationships. Digital environments therefore need to be considered as an equality issue - not only as a matter of individual choices.
Family policy needs to be modernized, but measures are also required long before the first child is born. The labor market, the housing market, the education system and the financial security systems all affect people's opportunities to start a family. In addition, there is the need to regulate digital environments so that the risks they entail - not least for children and young adults - are reduced.
Increased gender equality is one of the prerequisites for more people to dare to start a family.
Read more articles from DN Debatt:
87 employees in maternity care in Malmö: "At our BB, we wipe your baby with the rough paper"
