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Earlier studies
Similar reforms to the Swedish ones were introduced in Iceland and Norway
but also for example in Germany (Lappegard 2008; Eydal and Gislasson
2008; Schober 2014; Geisler and Kreyendfeld 2012). Swedish studies show
that both the first and second reserved months had effects on the sharing
of leave days (Ekberg et al. 2013; Duvander and Johansson 2012).
Comparing fathers with children born just before and after the first reform,
the average number of days increased from 26 days to 36 days during the
first two year of the child’s life. Perhaps more impressively the proportion
of fathers who used leave during the child’s first two years increased from
44 to 77 percent (Duvander and Johansson 2012). At the introduction of
the second month in 2002 fathers’ average use had increased, and the
introduction of the reform further increased the average used from 42 days
to 48 days (during the child’s first two years).
Even if the average number of days is increasing it may only be some
fathers that react to the reform. When investigating subgroups of fathers
we find that the first month primarily affected fathers who did not already
use leave; that is, fathers with low education and low income. The second
month affected instead the middle group of fathers, that is, the ones with
secondary education and middle to high income. These fathers started to
use the leave more, and thus their use became similar to the fathers with
high education and high income (Duvander and Johansson 2014).
In Norway the first month was introduced in 1993, and the reserved time
has been increased stepwise and then recently decreased to ten weeks.
Cools et al. (2011) find that among eligible fathers the users increased
from 4 percent to 39 percent during the first period of the reform. On
average fathers took 25 days, and 75 percent take exactly the quota; use
above the quota is increasing slowly. Rege and Solli (2013) found that in
1995 60 percent of fulltime-working fathers took leave.
Also in Iceland leave use increased dramatically when the father’s quota
was introduced, and today almost all fathers use three months of leave
(Eydal and Gislasson 2008). When reserved time for fathers was introduced
in Germany the leave use also increased; however, in Germany it was the
highly educated and permanently employed fathers who took up the leave
(Geisler and Kreyenfeld 2012).
Fathers’ use of leave is often used as an indicator for gender-equal sharing
of childcare, and it is also seen as leading to other dimensions of gender
equality. A number of studies indicate that fathers who take leave will be
more engaged in childcare later on (Haas and Hwang 2009; Duvander and
Jans 2009; Tanaka and Waldfogel 2007). Qualitative studies also indicate
that fathers who take leave later on take a larger share of both household
work and childcare (see for example Almqvist and Duvander 2014). One
informative example is a qualitative study comparing fathers’ arguments for