In Sweden, dads drink

myWearing a khaki sweater and shorts and socks on his feet, Joel, 36, stares at Dag, a chubby-faced 13-month-old blonde, who frolics on the blue carpet. A career soldier, the father marvels: “I would never have imagined the love you can feel for your child and that only grows every day. » For four months, Joel has spent his days with his son. For both him and his partner, sharing parental leave equally was obvious: “It was my mother who took care of me and my four sisters. My father didn’t even know how to cook. It wasn’t about me reproducing this pattern. »

Every Friday morning, Joel and Dag take part in “dads’ meetings”, organized since 2007 by the parish house in Limhamn, a wealthy residential area of ​​Malmö. On that day, there are sixteen men of all ages, accompanied by small children from a few months to several years old (in Sweden school is only compulsory from the age of 6). Some parents chat, others play with their children. Then, everyone forms a circle in the center of the room and starts singing children’s songs, before sitting down to have a snack: the little ones have compotes and cookies, the older ones have coffee.

Sharing parental leave with your partner has become natural for many Swedes, confirms Jens Karberg, head of equality at the Män (“men” in Swedish) association: “While men represented 0.5% of parental leave when Sweden was the first country in the world to institute it, in 1974, today between 85% and 90% of them request it, and take advantage of it 30% of the time . » In total, Swedish parents are entitled to 480 days of parental leave, of which 390 days are paid at approximately 80% of salary and 90 days entitle them to a daily allowance of 180 crowns (about 15 euros). The father also benefits from paternity leave of 10 consecutive days after the birth.

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One reform in particular allowed the change to accelerate, according to Karberg: since 1995, 30 days were reserved for each parent, then 60 from 2002 and 80 days from 2016. “This has had a very significant policy effect: while around 40% of men took parental leave before, the proportion rose to 70% after 1995, and this figure has continued to rise, although women still face greater pressure than men to stay at home. »says Jens Karberg.

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