Divorce is leading to gender equality in parenting, shows Sweden study

Single mothers are one of the most vulnerable groups in societies around the world. In Sweden, the number of women with these care responsibilities has nearly halved over the past two decades. What has caused this change? Are we seeing a dramatic reversal in the global trend of increasing separations and divorce?

No, union dissolutions in Sweden are still among the highest in the world. What we are witnessing is a change in the logistics of break-ups. Sweden not only holds a leading role in the rate of divorces, it is also world-leading when it comes to splitting child custody 50:50. Almost half of children with separated parents now split their time equally between the two households.

In our new study, published in the journal Social Forces, we wanted to find out to what extent this remarkable change in living arrangements has changed the gender division of care work within the ex-couple.

We hypothesised that the effect of such union dissolution may lead to more gender equality than when children went to live only with their mothers.

Ultimately, 50:50 residence requires fathers to take full care responsibility for the child half of the time – something few partnered fathers do. So it could push parents into a more egalitarian division of care work.

As a measure of care...

Read more