Sweden's pioneering paternity leave

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Fifty years ago Sweden became the first country in the world to offer paid parental leave that was gender neutral.

The state granted mothers and fathers 180 days that they could divide between them however they saw fit.

The pioneering policy was designed to promote gender equality, but it wasn’t an instant success.

Later governments decided to increase the number of leave days available and ring-fenced some specifically for each parent.

Maddy Savage went to meet Per Edlund who was one of the first fathers in his town, Katrineholm, to embrace the new benefit.

A Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: Per Edlund with his youngest daughter Märta Edlund. Credit: Maddy Savage)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hi there and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:39.2	Maddie Savage. I'm taking us back to the 1970s when Sweden introduced a pioneering policy to promote
0:46.8	gender equality. Mums and dads were given the chance to split paid parental leave
0:51.8	between them. I went to meet
0:54.0	Père Edlund who was one of the first fathers in his town to embrace the new
0:58.0	benefit. It's 1974 and Père is planning a wedding with his fiance Agneta.
1:07.0	We met at a dance and then we dated for a while and then we got engaged.
1:14.7	I don't remember getting down on one knee or anything like that.
1:18.5	Rather, we were pretty much in agreement that it was time to get married.
1:23.0	The couple had grown up around Katrina Holm,
1:26.0	an industrial town southwest of Stockholm,
1:29.0	surrounded by lakes and forest.
1:31.0	Together, we hope that we will be able to start a family, live in a nice house and celebrate moments together.
1:40.0	And a new state benefit was about to have a huge impact on the way
1:44.3	Pair and Agneta would raise that family. As Sweden became the first country in the
	...

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