{"id":8086,"date":"2020-02-11T10:31:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T15:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=8086"},"modified":"2020-02-12T11:57:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T16:57:43","slug":"finlands-quixotic-bid-to-raise-its-birth-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/finlands-quixotic-bid-to-raise-its-birth-rate","title":{"rendered":"Finland&#8217;s Quixotic Bid to Raise Its Birth Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"last-updated\">Last updated on February 12th, 2020 at 11:57 am<\/p>\n<p>In a move hailed by the media, the female-led government of Finland <a href=\"https:\/\/valtioneuvosto.fi\/en\/article\/-\/asset_publisher\/1271139\/perhevapaauudistus-tahtaa-perheiden-hyvinvointiin-ja-tasa-arvon-lisaamiseen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">announced last week<\/a> a family leave reform that would grant an equal number of paid days off to both parents upon the birth of a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe family leave reform is the Government\u2019s investment in the future of children and the wellbeing of families,\u201d the Finnish government website reads. \u201cThe reform will be a major change in attitudes, as it will improve equality between parents and make the lives of diverse families easier.\u201d Each parent is to receive 164 days of paid leave, or almost 7 months. Of that time, each parent has the option of transferring 69 of their own days to the other parent. The changes, the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/nytimes.com\/2020\/02\/06\/world\/europe\/finland-parental-leave-equality.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"summarizes (opens in a new tab)\">summarizes<\/a>, \u201care a bid to promote gender equality and inclusivity for same-sex couples and to encourage fathers to take as much time off work as mothers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And although the Finnish statement focuses on gender equality, the media reports also highlight Finland\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/npr.org\/2020\/02\/05\/803051237\/finlands-women-led-government-has-equalized-family-leave-7-months-for-each-paren\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">low birth rate<\/a>, which last year reached the lowest number seen since an 1868 famine. Could this measure help produce more Finnish babies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The problem is that gender equality does not necessarily lead to more births.<\/strong> Over at <em>Forbes<\/em>, Elizabeth Bauer <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/forbes.com\/sites\/ebauer\/2019\/10\/01\/why-has-finlands-fertility-rate-collapsedand-are-there-lessons-for-us\/#405eb88a2240\" target=\"_blank\">highlights <\/a>that Finland, like the other Nordic countries, already has one of the most generous parental leave policies, a solid economy, one of the \u201chappiest\u201d populaces, and a rating by the World Economic Forum to be 4th in the world when it comes to gender equality\u2014behind Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. In short, all of the things that <em>should<\/em> lead to a higher birth rate, analysts tend to think, are already in place. Bauer closes by puzzling that perhaps the Finnish birth rate will start to tick up again soon, but in the meantime, \u201cit calls into question the conventional wisdom that the path to replacement-level fertility rates is a combination of gender equality and generous social welfare provision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So what is going on?<\/em> Allan Carlson <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/familyinamerica.org\/journals\/demographic-picture-developed-nations\/failure-swedish-model-family-policy\/#.XkF7XGRKil0\" target=\"_blank\">has highlighted<\/a> that in Sweden \u2014 another country hailed for its generous parental leave and gender equality \u2014 such policies have done nothing to reverse population decline. Carlson quotes <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/c-fam.org\/gender-equality-partly-to-blame-for-fertility-decline-says-un-official\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Chamie<\/a>, former Director of the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cWhile many governments, . . . non-governmental organizations, and individuals may strongly support gender equality at work and in the home as a fundamental principle and desirable goal, it is not at all evident how having men and women participate equally in employment, parenting and household responsibilities will raise low levels of fertility. On the contrary, the equal participation of men and women in the labor force, child rearing, and housework points precisely in the opposite direction, i.e., below replacement fertility.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So what does work?<\/em> A family-friendly <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/the-hungarian-model-of-family-policy-moves-to-america\/\" target=\"_blank\">tax policy<\/a> that favors marriage and children has shown some marked benefits. The measures that the nation of Hungary is currently taking \u2014 which include excepting women who bear four or more children from income tax for the rest of their lives and providing parents with sizable housing allowances \u2014 also seem to be gaining traction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While gender equality may be good for other things, raising\nthe birth rate, unfortunately, is not one of those things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last updated on February 12th, 2020 at 11:57 am In a move hailed by the media, the female-led government of Finland announced last week a family leave reform that would grant an equal number of paid days off to both parents upon the birth of a child. \u201cThe family leave reform is the Government\u2019s investment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":8088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"The problem is that gender equality does not necessarily lead to more births.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[1168,959,1170,1169],"class_list":["post-8086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","tag-birth-rate","tag-demographics","tag-finland","tag-gender-equality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - 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King is the Managing Editor of IOF's journal, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy, the United States\u2019 leading journal of family-policy research. In that capacity, she writes, edits and corresponds with editors and contributors to ensure that each issue provides the most relevant and accurate research and policy analysis available. Nicole holds a B.A. in English as well as M.A.s in English and Political Theory. She has contributed to The Front Porch Republic and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, among others. She is also a contributing editor to SALVO Magazine and a blogger at salvomag.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/nkingifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8095,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086\/revisions\/8095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}