The Transformation of the Swedish Family:Family Policy and Family Practices

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This article explores family transformation in Sweden based on official statistics and extant research on the family life of opposite-sex and same-sex couples and child custody after divorce or separation. Since the late 1960s, the Swedish government has promoted a family policy based on gender equality, which has meant the double emancipation of both women and men and has emphasized fatherhood, encouraging fathers to take parental leave. In addition, family law has been amended in accordance with the principle of neutrality of gender and cohabitation, which leads to legalizing same-sex marriage and allowing same-sex couples to become parents, followed by a prioritization of the principle of "the best interests of the child" in family policy. It is unquestionable that the breadwinner/homemaker division of labor has virtually disappeared, and dual-income families have become common. However, the purpose of democratizing the family through family policy has only been partially realized in family life: there is still inequality in the division of domestic work and childcare, inequality in parenthood between a "father's rights" and a "mother's obligations," and the prioritization of father-child relationships over the protection of children.