Turun yliopisto Sosiaalipolitiikan laitos

1. FAMILY POLICY AND SHARED PARENTING P.hD. Mia Hakovirta (miahak@utu.fi) M.Soc.SC. Minna Rantalaiho (minran@utu.fi) REASSESS conference 26-27 November, 2009 at SFIReassess strand 2, Family change, public policies and birth-rates Turun yliopisto Sosiaalipolitiikan laitos

2. Point of departure of the study • Building up a family policy system has been based on the family of two parents living together (i.e., 'nuclear family') • Contemporary family policy legislation is 'nuclear family' centered • Family policy emphasises the idea of shared parenthood

3. How the idea of shared parenting shows up in Finnish family policy, when studying it from a 'post parental break-up' perspective? Finland in Nordic contex: comparing the Finnish case with Norway and Sweden Focusing on three kinds of entitlements: Child support Child maintenance Family leaves The goals of this study

4. The idea of shared parenting • In the nuclear family commitment from the mother and the father to parenthood  After parental break-up the care of the child is shared (equally) between both parents

5. Child benefit • Norway and Finland: a lone parent receives an increase to the child benefit (not in Sweden) • Norway and Sweden: child benefit can be split in two and paid to both parents • Sweden: if parents have joint custody and child spends equal time with both parents • Norway: if parents have made a shared custody arrangement and the child spends at least 40 % of time with the other parent • Finland: sharing of child benefit is not possible

6. Child support • Sweden: The amount of time the child spends with each parent is taken into account when maintenance payments are determined • Norway: As in Sweden. In addition, each parents' capability of providing maintenance is emphasised  dual residence arrangement does not automatically lead to zero child support • Finland: No formal directions. In 2007 the Ministry of Justice gave its recommendations (sceptical about the relation of child support to dual residence arrangement).

7. Child maintenance allowance • Sweden and Norway: the maintenance allowance can be paid to both parents in dual residence situations (includes individual means-testing in both countries) • Finland: always paid to the parent 'with care' (i.e., the parent sharing permanent address with the child)

8. Support of work-family combine • Norway & Sweden: access to parental leave rights (e.g., father quota) concerns also parents who live separated; lone parent is entitled to maximum length of parental leave • Sweden: gender equality bonus and cash-for-childcare sharable (requires dual residence arrangement and parents' agreement) • Norway: cash-for-childcare can be shared (as for Sweden) • Finland: work-family combine policies acknowledge only parents who live with the child  sharing of parental leave is not possible in a dual-residence arrangement; two parent family has access to a longer parental leave compared to lone parent family; part-time parental leave concerns only two-parent families; etc.

10. Summary & discussion • In Norway and Sweden family related responsibilities in different family life contexts are clearly better acknowledged compared to Finland • In Norway and Sweden equally shared parenting after separation has become ’mainstreamed’ in family policy – why not in Finland? • In Norway and Sweden the interest to support active fatherhood from start is stronger compared to Finland  Fatherhood (and shared parenthood) stays ’strong’ after divorce (?)