En papparoll i förändring - Studie om mäns uttag av föräldrapenning och faktorer som påverkar arbetet mot jämställdhet

Sammanfattning: Sweden achieves the highest gender equality index by the European Institute of gender Equality (EIGE). Women in Sweden still use double the amount of parental leave that men do. The aim of this study was to investigate if the amount of men working in male dominated industries affect the males share of parental leave. I will also investigate if it’s a significant factor after accounting for parental income, educational level and if the parents have foreign background. Demographic data was collected from Statistics Sweden and Försäkringskassan which was later used to construct a linear regression model to predict male use of parental leave on a municipal level. The differences between larger cities and rural areas were also examined. The analysis was supplemented with the theories of Hirdman on gender systems and Connell on Hegemonic masculinity. Diffusion theory was used to analyse the expected spread of egalitarian values concerning distribution of parental leave between men and women. My results show that in larger municipalities the number of men working in male dominated industries is a significant factor for predicting men’s use of parental leave, together with parental income, number of parents with foreign background and women’s education level which was the most dominant factor. In the rural municipalities only the number of parents with foreign background was significant. The differences between rural and urban municipalities were also highlighted, specifically the lack of significant demographic factors for predicting male use of parental leave in the rural areas. Urban areas react more strongly to economic incentives and potentially have less rigid gender norms.