Men also have 480 days of parental leave! Sweden becomes the world's most friendly country to women

Sweden has always been among the indicators of progress. Sweden became the friendliest country in the world for women in the 2017, and the survey was conducted by BAV Consulting, a long-standing consultancy, U.S, the News & World and the top Wharton School of Business. Enn ' s Wharton School of Business joint study published. Denmark is ranked second in northern Europe, and Norway is the third.

Image source:Infinity House

Why Sweden? Swedish minister for children, elders and Gender Equality (the Minister for Children, the elderly and Gender Equality, hereinafter referred to as the Minister of Gender Equality) Asa Regner will tell you that this is not an overnight effort, but up to dozens of Years of advocacy for women's rights, and the federal government's system of policies and legislation to support women's work and life outcomes.

Sweden's gender equality milestone could even be traced back to the 1250s, when the king of the time. Birger Jarl, through laws against violence against women, prohibits rape and abduction of women. In the 1845, Sweden began to implement the system of inheritance rights between men and women. In the 1974, Sweden became the first country in the world to replace maternity leave by parental leave, an important step in promoting equality between women and men.

Sweden is also the world's first feminist government--a feminist goverment--they claim it even on government websites and declare that achieving gender equality in policy decisions and resource allocations is the first order of the Swedish Government.

Image source: official website of the Government of Sweden

Since the 2006 World Economic Forum's first publication of the annual Global Gender Gap report , Sweden's gender equality in the economic, political, educational and health sectors has remained high in the world's top four.

Sweden's Minister of gender Equality, Regner, said that Sweden's ability to continue to reduce gender inequality, there are several key policies behind the support:

1. Taking parental leave instead of childcare leave

Sweden has the world's most generous and resilient policy on parenting issues. Parents who give birth or adopt a child can share 480 days of parental leave until the child is eight years old. Single parents can use the full 480-day parental leave alone.

Within 390 days of the 480-day parental leave, the parents were entitled to 80 per cent of the wage income (SEK 946 per day, about 102 euros or 116 dollars). For the rest of the 90 days, the government subsidizes SEK 180 a day. Parents without work also have the right to paid parental leave.

Image source:Susanne Walström

480 days of parental leave, can parents see but not eat? The Swedish government has thought about this earlier, and the law stipulates that each parent must have at least 60 days of parental leave for each child and not be transferable.

Parental leave can also be taken apart, can be used monthly, week, day or even hours for the unit, which allows parents to allocate time, balance work and life. Many studies have shown that such policies create a more friendly workplace for women and more women are involved. In the past, most working women had to face a very difficult choice to become mothers: either they had to choose between the workplace and the family, or they took care of both sides, and when they left the job, it was hard to keep the salary before they left.

Sweden's policy not only helps mothers, but men can take parental leave as well as women. In Sweden today, an average of one-fourth of childcare leave is taken by the father, but the Swedish government remains extremely dissatisfied with the data and is still trying to raise the percentage of men to take a break, in the hope that the percentage of men and women taking parental leave is up to 1:1.  

These friendly parenting policies are not the charitable giving of the government, but the initiative of the people to fight for it.

The policy opportunity originated from the 1930 's. Sweden was facing a severe population contraction, and the 1935 fertility rate fell to 1.7 (but still higher than Taiwan today). At the time, conservatives blamed the fall in fertility on the reluctance of women to assume the role of traditional housewives, which helped to worsen the situation. As a result, the trade unions banded together to put pressure on public representatives to fight for childcare benefits. "The actions of the trade unions have played a big role in the government's policy decisions," said Persinin, the chairman of the Swedish congressional labour Market Committee, Raimo Parssinen, who has been a member since 1998, recalls policy history.

The reform of childcare policies has become an opportunity to promote gender equality. The Swedish experience is also an important revelation of Taiwan's severe population aging and very low birth rate.

Source: Official website of Sweden

2. A joint tax system that replaces marriage with a personal tax system

Sweden's unique tax system, to a greater extent, supports childcare policies and empowers women. Why can the tax system contribute to equality?

Regner, the Minister of Gender Equality, explained to the Business Insider website that gender equality would have to go to "a very boring technical level-that is, an individual-based tax system" if it were not to stay in the slogan. "Since 1977, the Swedish marriage has not been taxed jointly and must be paid by each other," he said. So whether you go into marriage or sex, your tax base is based on your personal income, and the benefits you receive will be adjusted to your personal needs, not from the collective needs of the family.

Swedish gender minister Åsa Regnér. Image source:UN Women

In other words, before Sweden passed the same sex marriage law in 2009, the core unit of welfare care was not the heterosexual family, but the "individual".

"We have done this since the 1970 and everyone realizes that they are paying taxes for themselves, which creates a positive cycle in which politicians are urged to work well for the voters [of all sexes]," he said. Regner, Minister of Gender Equality, explained.

This is the ultimate individualism society, the existence of individual space by the State protection, the root cause of protection from the tax system, which is a Swedish-style national governance is an important feature.

Sweden is often ranked in the "happiest country", and in fact it is related to the personal tax system in Sweden, which gives back to the individual and supports a more egalitarian social environment.

3. Rigorous investigation of the gender pay gap between companies and industries

Sweden's ongoing effort is to ensure that the company line number complies with the Equal Pay Act.

In 2008, Sweden signed the Swedish Anti-Discrimination Act (The Swedish Discrimination Act), and companies with more than 25 employees were required to investigate the gender differences within the company each year, and if the gap was too large and no corrective action was taken, the government would require the company to pay the penalty fines.

On average, even in Sweden, women are currently earning less than 87%--of men, and if the difference in industry is taken into account, the former is 95 of the latter. In the provincial council, the difference in pay between the sexes is most pronounced. One of the least differentiated occupations is blue-collar workers. Regner said, "the disparity in remuneration for equal work can still be achieved through policy, which is rather a big one, but rather how to make the value of a job that is traditionally considered to be performed by a woman to be recognized, such as nursing and elderly care." 」

Swedish women are among the world's top representatives in Parliament. Image source: Melker Dahlstrand/riksdagen

The value of care, no matter in which countries to be renovated at the sociocultural level, affirmation, and even policy support, so that the work is no longer gender, it is possible to further achieve gender equality between industries, and more comprehensively reduce the gap between gender equal pay.

4. Implementation of gender mainstreaming

The Swedish Government has devoted much effort to the implementation of gender equality mainstreaming. Therefore, gender mainstreaming is not an empty word for Swedes, it is real material.

In 2014, the Government of Sweden assigned 41 Government agencies to participate actively in the project on "Gender mainstreaming in government agencies" (GMGA) from 2015 to 2018. Their goal is to integrate the gender equality work of agencies in all areas. The Government allocated a total of SEK 26 million to the four-year project.

The Swedish government's official website has such a moving declaration:

Women and men must have the same rights to shape their personal lives and society. It is a human right and a matter of democracy and justice. When society faces challenges, gender equality will provide some of the solutions. In the modern welfare state, when considering economic development and justice, gender equality is the subject of course. Gender mainstreaming is an important tool for the Government in implementing feminist policies, and a responsive budget for gender equality is an important part of gender mainstreaming. Women and men must have the same power to shape society and their own. This is a human right and a matter of democracy and justice. Gender equality is also part of the solution to society ' s challenges and a matter of course in a modern welfare state–fo R Justice and economic development. The Government ' s most important tool for implementing feminist policy is gender mainstreaming, of which gender-responsive Budgeting is a important component.

Writing here, when I understand that this is not a slogan, but the government's code of conduct at this time, the heart is very excited. While gender mainstreaming is by no means difficult to implement, we can indeed ask the Government to do so, and the Government should also fulfil its obligation to treat all gender citizens equally.