Dads at playgrounds

Irin Carmon wrote an article for Time titled Can American Men and Women Ever Really Be Equal? She explores the question by discussing fathers in Sweden.

The Swedish government takes gender equality as a serious goal and has, over the years, worked to address it. They recognize some of their efforts aren’t working as expected, so they adjust and try again. Are the genders equal? Let’s say they’re a lot *more* equal than in America. And they’re making the effort.

The Swedes realized gender equality had to be woven into everything, including how they handle welfare. It had to be available to everyone, not just to those who could afford it. They adjusted the way families are taxed to avoid penalizing working wives. They provide universal child care. They give parents an allowance per child (covers just the basics). And they provide a generous paid paternity leave. Both mothers and fathers get 480 days – 16 months – of paid leave. It doesn’t have to be taken all at once and, from what I figure, each parent has at least three months with the child while the other is working.

So dads are a common sight at playgrounds in Stockholm. Dads arrange play dates with other dads. Men find new ways to relate to other men.

So we can make strides towards equality. It doesn’t have to be the way it is now. But it doesn’t happen on its own.

Melissa McEwan tweeted that she thinks the article is terrific, but…

A massive barrier to implementing a similar model in the U.S. will always be religion-based patriarchy. As long as rigidly enforcing binary gender roles is considered a religious obligation by a significant portion of the population, state-mandated egalitarianism is a nonstarter.