Norway: the making of the father's quota

Introduction Norway was the first countrY to reserve part of paid parental leave for fathers, making it a leader in parental leave policies and fathers’ rights. Gender-neutral parental leave bad been available for fathers from the 1970s, but few bad taken up this opportunity to share parental leave with the mother.The father’s quota, introduced in 1993, gave fathers an exclusive right to 4 weeks of parental leave, which in principle could not be transferred to the mother. From its very start, the father’s quota proved to be a success judging by its high take—up rate. Several other countries have since followed Norway’s lead. But the Norwegian case is interesting because Norway bad long been regarded as the most conservative of the Nordic countries with respect to employment for women and ECEC services for children (Leira, 1992).The aim of this chapter is to contribute to understanding what Diane SainsburY (2001) has called’the Norwegian puzzle’. It will explore how the construction of statutory parental leave rights for fathers can be explained in the Norwegian context by looking at the debates prior to their introduction.The point of departure is the characteristics of the Norwegian welfare state,which strongly influence family policies.The chapter will also consider how the political parties in Norway managed to achieve political consensus on this issue, and the influence of the men’s movement, particularly the Committee on Men’s Role that was active in the late 1980s.