Letter from Iceland.
The suspicion that benefits are somewhat more generous in Nordic countries will be enhanced by news that in Iceland parental leave has gone up to nine months, writes Steinunn Hrafnsdottir.
A new act on parental leave was implemented in Iceland in 2000, giving fathers three months' paternity leave. The reform means that the total parental leave has been extended from six to nine months: three months for the mother, three for the father and the remaining three to be shared according to individual wishes. The parental leave must be taken within the child's first 18 months. All parents on leave receive 80 per cent of their salary from a special fund established for the purpose.
The act aims to:
- Ensure children have relationships with both their parents.
- Enable parents to reconcile family and work life.
- Increase the opportunities of fathers to spend more time with their children and to take more family responsibility.
- Decrease inequality between women and men on the labour market.
- Co-ordinate the rights of parents on the labour market independent of employer.
The act is part of a wider development in family and equality policy in Iceland. In 1997, the government implemented a special policy on families and established a family council. The public family policy states that welfare of families is based on the equality between men and women. It is emphasised that both parents have equal responsibility in the home and in the upbringing of their children. Therefore, it is considered necessary to provide parents with the means to enable them to balance family and work life.
In a conference held last year by the Centre for Gender Equality in Iceland it was revealed that in 2001 over 90 per cent of men entitled to paternity leave took the leave, which is a very satisfactory result.
In general, participants were pleased with the opportunity for fathers to get paternity leave. However, it was also felt that parental leave should be extended to one year.
Health care staff at the conference made the point that the new legislation required increased parental education and family counselling. Furthermore, education during pregnancy must be adapted more to the needs of the fathers.
In the latest edition of Vera, an Icelandic magazine about gender equality, there are interviews with fathers about the experience of paternal leave. Most fathers appear satisfied with parental leave and think it has a positive influence on their relationships with their newborn children.
Fathers in Iceland have a much better opportunity than their own fathers had to abandon traditional gender roles and to develop early and close relationships with their children.
It will be interesting in the future to research the influence of fathers' leave on changes in attitudes both within families and in society. As one of the fathers reported in Vera: "By establishing that the upbringing and care of children is the responsibility of both parents, we have made huge progress towards equality in the society for the benefit of all."
Steinunn Hrafnsdottir is a social worker and independent researcher at the Reykjav¡kurAcademy.
Background
- Iceland (Lyoveldio Island) covers 103,000 sq km - less than half that of the UK - and has a population of 276,000 (about the size of Coventry).
- Ethnic groups: homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norwegians and Celts.
- Reykjavik, the capital, has a population of 110,000. In 1967 all social services were co-ordinated into one institution, the Social Services of Reykjavik, under the social welfare committee. The director of social services is head of the institution.
