Government wants to encourage fathers to stay at home to care for children
Jouko Huttunen, a paternity expert at the University of Jyväskylä, feels that fathers and mothers in Finland continue to live in the stone age as far as certain attitudes are concerned.
“If there were just a little bit of paternal thinking at workplaces, or if more services were directed toward fathers alongside issues related to mothers, or if the post-natal child clinic system directed more services clearly toward fathers, the attitudes could change”, Huttunen says.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health now plans to start encouraging fathers to take parental leave. Stefan Wallin, the Minister responsible for Equality Affairs, is set to launch a project in Helsinki on Friday, aimed at encouraging fathers to take parental leave.
The objective is to promote gender equality at work and in education by increasing the role of fathers in the care of children.
The most frequent users of long parental leaves are mothers who do not have a steady job, or who have little training.
Child care leave is seen as one reason for the weaker position that young women have on the labour market. Employers are afraid to hire women of childbearing age for fear of the absences.
The aim of Wallin’s project is to promote awareness of parental benefits that already exist. This would mean that fathers would also be allowed to use them more.
Mere campaigning and manipulation of attitudes are not enough in the opinion of Jenni Kellokumpu. Legislative changes is also needed, which would eventually filter down to attitudes.
This is suggested by the fact that fathers are using the days off that they are legally entitled to.
“The problem with today’s system is that parents agree between themselves on parental leaves”, Kellokumpu says. “If we could concretely show people we could say ‘Hey Father, these are for you’, men would more consistently avail themselves of the entitlement.”