Swedish study reveals women manage family's parental leave paperwork
Women in Sweden disproportionately handle information-seeking and administrative tasks for parental benefits—both their own and their partners'—according to new research. The findings suggest that invisible administrative labor may be a hidden brake on gender equality, pointing to how government services could be redesigned to distribute this burden more fairly.
Originaltitel: ‘The family administrator’: Women take most responsibility for information-seeking, planning and administration of parental benefit in Sweden
<p>This paper investigates parents’ information-seeking about parental leave. It examines gendered patterns in parents’ contacts with the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) over telephone, email, and on Facebook with a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. We show that women not only contact the SSIA more than men do, they also to a larger extent approach the SSIA early on – a practice that may facilitate strategic planning – as well as administer their partner’s leave. By such means, the paper sheds light on women’s role as ‘administrator’ in taking more responsibility for both their own and their partner’s parental leave. These findings are in line with previous research showing that women often act as the ‘project leader’ of the family, taking responsibility for unpaid (and often unrecognized) tasks that make everyday life run smoothly. In shedding light on women’s considerable administrative responsibility for parental leave, the study thus brings new knowledge on what might be one piece of the puzzle of the slow progression of gender equality in this area, pointing to informational and administrative services as a potential arena for gender equality-promoting work.</p>