By KATRIN BENNHOLD
SPOLAND, SWEDEN

MIKAEL KARLSSON OWNS a snowmobile, two hunting dogs and five guns. In his spare time, this soldierturned- game warden shoots moose and trades potty-training tips with other fathers. Cradling 2-month-old Siri in his arms, he can’t imagine not taking baby leave. “Everyone does.”

From trendy central Stockholm to this village in the rugged forest south of the Arctic Circle, 85 percent of Swedish fathers take parental leave. Those who don’t face questions from family, friends and colleagues. As other countries still tinker with maternity leave and women’s rights, Sweden may be a glimpse of the future.

Laws reserving at least two months of the generously paid, 13-month parental leave exclusively for fathers - a quota that could well double after the September election - have set off profound social change in this country.

Companies have come to expect employees to take leave irrespective of gender, and not to penalize fathers at promotion time. Women’s paychecks are benefiting and the shift in fathers’ roles is perceived as playing a part in lower divorce rates and increasing joint custody of children.

In perhaps the most striking example of social engineering, a new definition of masculinity is emerging.

“Many men no longer want to be identified just by their jobs,” said Bengt Westerberg, who long opposed quotas but as deputy prime minister phased in a first month of paternity leave in 1995. Many women now expect their husbands to take parental leave. The few men who took it were nicknamed “velvet dads.”

Despite government campaigns - one featuring a champion weightlifter with a baby perched on his bare biceps - the share of fathers on leave was stalled at 6 percent when Mr. Westerberg entered government in 1991.

Sweden, he said, faced a vicious circle. Women continued to take parental leave not just for tradition’s sake but because their pay was often lower, thus perpetuating pay differences.

Companies, meanwhile, made clear to men that staying home with baby was not compatible with a career.

Introducing “daddy leave” in 1995 had an immediate impact. No father was forced to stay home, but the family lost one month of subsidies if he did not. Soon more than eight in 10 men took leave.

The addition of a second nontransferable father month in 2002 only marginally increased the number of men taking leave, but it more than doubled the amount of time they take.

Clearly, state money proved an incentive - and a strong argument with reluctant bosses.

Among the self-employed, and in rural and immigrant communities, men are far less likely to take leave, said Nalin Pekgul, chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party’s women’s federation. In her Stockholm suburb, with a large immigrant population, traditional gender roles remain conspicuously intact.

But the daddy months have left their mark. A study published by the Swedish Institute of Labor Market Policy Evaluation in March showed, for instance, that a mother’s future earnings increase on average 7 percent for every month the father takes leave.

Among those with university degrees, a growing number of couples split the leave evenly; some switch back and forth every few months to avoid one parent assuming a dominant role - or being away from jobs too long. The higher women rank, the more they resemble men: few male chief executives take parental leave - but neither do the few female chief executives.

Parents may use their 390 days of paid leave however they want up to the child’s eighth birthday - monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly - a schedule that leaves particularly small, private employers scrambling to adapt.

While Sweden, with nine million people, made a strategic decision to get more women into the work force in the booming 1960s, other countries imported more immigrant men. As populations in Europe decline and new labor shortages loom, countries have studied the Swedish model, said Peter Moss an expert on leave policies at the University of London’s Institute of Education.

Portugal is the only country where paternity leave is mandatory - but only for a week. Iceland has arguably gone furthest, reserving three months for father, three months for mother and allowing parents to share another three months.

The trend is, however, no longer limited to small countries. Germany in 2007 reserved two out of 14 months of paid leave for fathers.

If Germany can do it, said Kimberly Morgan, professor at George Washington University and an expert on parental leave , “most countries can.”

In Sodermalm, Stockholm’s trendy south island, men with strollers walk in the park, chat in cafes, stock up at the supermarket or weigh their babies at walk-in daycare centers.

Claes Boklund, a 35-year-old Web designer taking 10 months off with 19-month-old Harry, admits he was scared at first: the cooking, the cleaning, the sleepless nights. Six months later, he is confident around Harry.

“It’s both harder and easier than you think,” he said.


Mikael Karlsson presents a new Swedish model of manhood — one based on taking months off work to help raise babies. / CASPER HEDBERG FOR THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Most Swedish men are taking advantage of paternity leave. Fredrik Friberg, 31, with his daughter, Ylva, buying baby food in Stockholm. / CASPER HEDBERG FOR THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE