Difference and equality: Icelandic parents' division of parental leave within the context of a childcare gap

Abstract

Iceland's parental leave system, granting mothers and fathers equal benefits, may be interpreted as part of the development in the Nordic countries towards a dual-earner/dual-caregiver model. Even though uptake studies show fathers' increased participation in childcare, the use of the entitlement varies and a gendered pattern persists. This paper is based on interviews with 14 Icelandic couples who find themselves in a situation where they have to bridge a care gap between parental leave and state-subsidized childcare. While mothers tend to stretch their part of the leave on the argument that six months is too short a leave, fathers generally find three months to be long enough. The discussion revolves around the question of the relationship between difference and equality, inspired by Andrea Doucet's (2006) concept of strategic essentialism. May we envision a policy system that takes into consideration the way people invest in gender and at the same time develop policy measures that facilitate gender equality?

El Sistema de permiso parental de Islandia, que da beneficios iguales a madres y padres, puede ser interpretado como parte del desarrollo de los paises nórdicos hacia un modelo de igual distribución de ingreso y responsabilidades en el cuidado de niños entre hombres y mujeres. Aunque estudios del uso del permiso parental muestran mayor participación de los padres en el cuidado de los niños, la utilización de estos derechos varía y persisten pautas de género. Este articulo está basado en entrevistas a 14 parejas islandesas que se encuentran en una situación en la cual se necesita cubrir la brecha entre el permiso parental y el cuidado de los niños subsidiado por el estado. Mientras las madres tienden a extender su parte del permiso parental con el argumento de que un permiso de seis meses es demasiado corto, los padres generalmente encuentran que tres meses es demasiado. La discusión gira alrededor de la relación entre diferencia e igualdad, inspirado en el concepto de esencialismo estratégico de Andrea Doucet (2006). Podemos imaginarnos un sistema de políticas que toma en cuenta las maneras en que la gente invierte en género y a la vez desarrollar medidas de políticas de bienestar que faciliten igualdad de género?

Keywords:

• parental leave
• equality
• difference
• care gap
• Iceland

Palabras claves:

• permiso parental
• igualdad
• diferencia
• vacio sistemico
• Islandia

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Arnlaug Leira, Nicole Hennum, Margunn Bjørnholt and Kari Stefansen for their support and help while writing this article. I also wish to thank the anonymous referees for their useful and insightful comments to my manuscript.

Notes on contributor

Gunhild Regland Farstad (Master of Politics) is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social Work and Family Therapy at Diakonhjemmet University College in Oslo. She is in the process of finishing her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Oslo. Farstad's research is related to family, fatherhood and care within the Nordic context. Farstad's Ph.D. project is funded by NorForsk through the Nordic Centre of Excellence, Reassessing the Nordic Welfare Model (REASSESS).

Notes

1. The Nordic countries/Nordic region (Norden) consists of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. The term Scandinavia usually refers to Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

2. In Icelandic, the term ‘Fæðingarorlof’ directly translates into ‘birth leave’, used both for maternal and paternal leave.

3. The policy of dividing the leave between the parents on a ‘use-or-lose’ basis has been pursued also into a new bill in 2012 (Þingskjal 877, www.althingi.is) gradually increasing the full leave, aiming at a system by the year 2016 where mothers and fathers receive five months each and can divide two months between them as they like.

4. The benefits described in this section pertain to married/cohabiting couples who are active in the labour market. Benefits for single parents, unemployed parents and students may differ from these.

5. About 60% of Iceland's inhabitants live in the capital area of Reykjavik and its neighbouring municipalities.

6. The official name for these childminders is ‘dagforeldrar’ (day-parents); however, since the great majority of these childminders are women, they are commonly called ‘dagmamma’, which directly translates into day-mother.

7. See Table 1 for overview of the participants in the study.