More Than Company Policy

     This article in the New York Times discusses Sweden's policy when it comes to parental leave and general accommodations for parents. As of the article's publication in 2010, 85% of fathers took paternity leave, and it is starting to become a cultural expectation. The article further discusses remarkable changes in other areas of Swedish society as a result of higher expectations and opportunities for gender equity, including the increase of paternal involvement: divorce rates went down, shared custody for divorcees increased, women are paid more, companies pay better for longer instances of parental leave, and, most remarkably, the article reports that the concept of masculinity itself is evolving drastically. With the shift towards equal opportunity and equal involvement in and outside of the home, there has also been a new element of multidimensionality to what it means to "be a man" in Sweden. Hypermasculine qualities like violence, aggression, explicit establishment of dominance, and emotional indifference are neither encouraged nor rewarded, and in their place seems to be settling a more complete, more human, and more varied definition of manhood (and personhood in general). This article in the Business Insider also praises Sweden's groundbreaking treatment of parenthood in the workplace, and echoes our textbook's criticism of America's underdeveloped or entirely absent policy. The book states that "In the United States, family policy is still an unfamiliar term, and the few policies that support families, like welfare, unemployment assistance, and tax relief, are inadequate and uncoordinated" (318).
     What do you think of Sweden's policy and its impact on their society? Do you think such a thing is desirable in America? Is it even possible? In what ways besides those discussed in the article do you think our society might change if we did implement better family policies?