Sweden has transformed into a considerable gender equality and family-friendly society over the past half-century. Meanwhile, Swedish involved fathers have been not only regarded as the role model in many countries, b...Sweden has transformed into a considerable gender equality and family-friendly society over the past half-century. Meanwhile, Swedish involved fathers have been not only regarded as the role model in many countries, but also been the focus of extensive research. However, the trajectory trends of shifting practices on fatherhood in postmodem Sweden and the reasons underlying the whole gender equality reforms are still not clearly illustrated and explored. Therefore, this paper tries to answer these questions by reviewing related literature from 1960 to 2017. It is found that although dual-earner and dual-carer models were proposed together as early as the mid-1960s, it was the former that proved easier to achieve. Since 1990s substantial shifts in the practices on fatherhood have occurred in Sweden. Nowadays, it becomes quite nature and common for Swedish fathers to take parental leave and share housework and childcare with their partners. The findings also highlight that in the transition towards a father-friendly state, the following causes and factors have interplayed with each other in Sweden： （a） Comprehensive and thorough grassroots feminist cultures and strategists have laid the foundations of gender equality in education, politics, economics and religion; （b） New images of fatherhood in the literature and medium programs have further shaped the values of respecting nurturing and soft fathers; （c） Father-friendly social policies have significantly constructed the dual-earner and dual-carer models; and （d） Organizational culture on balancing work and life has strongly supported the practices on involved and active fathering. Last, this paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of oral history and comparative studies on shifting fatherhood.展开更多
文摘Sweden has transformed into a considerable gender equality and family-friendly society over the past half-century. Meanwhile, Swedish involved fathers have been not only regarded as the role model in many countries, but also been the focus of extensive research. However, the trajectory trends of shifting practices on fatherhood in postmodem Sweden and the reasons underlying the whole gender equality reforms are still not clearly illustrated and explored. Therefore, this paper tries to answer these questions by reviewing related literature from 1960 to 2017. It is found that although dual-earner and dual-carer models were proposed together as early as the mid-1960s, it was the former that proved easier to achieve. Since 1990s substantial shifts in the practices on fatherhood have occurred in Sweden. Nowadays, it becomes quite nature and common for Swedish fathers to take parental leave and share housework and childcare with their partners. The findings also highlight that in the transition towards a father-friendly state, the following causes and factors have interplayed with each other in Sweden： （a） Comprehensive and thorough grassroots feminist cultures and strategists have laid the foundations of gender equality in education, politics, economics and religion; （b） New images of fatherhood in the literature and medium programs have further shaped the values of respecting nurturing and soft fathers; （c） Father-friendly social policies have significantly constructed the dual-earner and dual-carer models; and （d） Organizational culture on balancing work and life has strongly supported the practices on involved and active fathering. Last, this paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of oral history and comparative studies on shifting fatherhood.
