Holy Crap! Can We all Move to Sweden? Gender Equality, Baby Daddies, and Swedish Paternity Leave
In Sweden, writes the New York Times, men have it all. Which, well, simultaneously means that women have it all. It’s like the land of perfect gender-equality, where 85 percent fathers take parental leave, the ponytailed finance minister calls himself a feminist, ads for cleaning products rarely feature women as homemakers, and preschools vet books for gender stereotypes in animal characters.
Swedish mothers still take more time off with children — almost four times as much … But laws reserving at least two months of the generously paid, 13-month parental leave exclusively for fathers — a quota that could well double after the September election — have set off profound social change.
Birgitta Ohlsson, European affairs minister, put it this way: “Machos with dinosaur values don’t make the top-10 lists of attractive men in women’s magazines anymore.”
An adorable baby-daddy gallery, and the rest of the fascinating article, are well worth checking out.
