Becoming parents in the Nordics. What role do gender and social policies play for parents’ income and earnings trajectories?

The Nordic countries are often put forth as a success story in terms of women’s labor force participation and gender equality. Generous family policies provide an important piece of the puzzle, yet the degree to which they stimulate gender equality vary among the countries. Focusing on the earnings and income trajectories of those transitioning to parenthood in same-sex and different-sex couples in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, we use comparisons between groups of couples, and across countries, to tease out the importance of gender and social policies for within-couple inequalities and household utility. The presentation draws on research from the GENPARENT project (www.su.se/genparent-research-project) (ERC CoG 2017, #771770).