FAMILY POLICY AND SHARED PARENTING P.hD. Mia Hakovirta M.Soc.SC. Minna Rantalaiho Turun yliopisto Sosiaalipolitiikan laitos REASSESS conference November, 2009 at SFI Reassess strand 2, Family change, public policies and birth-rates

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 The goals of this study  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

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  Sweden: if parents have joint custody and child spends equal time with both parents  Norway  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.

9 FinlandSwedenNorway Child benefit Paid to parent with careParents can split and can be paid to both parents Child support Dual residence/ wide visitation right does not necessarily result to a situation where a parent is not ordered to pay child support; legal practices vary Child support not required from other parent if dual residence Emphasis on residence arrangement and each parents’ economy; dual residence/wide visitation right does not automatically lead to a situation where a parent is not ordered to pay child support Child maintenance Paid to parent with careCan be shared and paid to both parents Parental leaves Lone mothers have shorter parental leave; sharing of parental leave rights concerns only couples Access to leave rights does not depend on the family model Childcare leave (cash-for- childcare/CFCC) CfCC paid only to a parent who lives in the same address with the child CfCC can be paid to both parents if parents have dual residence

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 (?)