In order to encourage fathers to participate in the care of their children, the Nordic countries started to introduce non-transferability, known as quotas, in their parental leave systems at the end of the 20th century. Recently, both Iceland and Finland extended non-transferable leave, Denmark reintroduced non-transferability and Sweden extended non-transferability. The aim of the project is to examine recent changes in paid parental leave schemes in the Nordic countries and ask to what extent they support sustainable development.

Researchers will develop comparative indicators that measure how parental leave policies relate to the UN goals of gender equality, poverty eradication and the promotion of well-being. A comparative analysis will be carried out.

The project will seek answers to whether Nordic parental leave policies are likely to increase or decrease inequalities in terms of gender, social class and well-being for parents and children. Researchers from all five Nordic countries will write a report on this comparative analysis and present the results at a Nordic seminar to reach relevant stakeholders, such as policy makers, experts from the social partners, academics and the general public.

In Europe, the right to health is upheld in the European Social Charter, obliging states to take measures to promote health and to provide health care. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed differences in health care systems and crisis-management approaches across Nordic and Baltic countries. A consistent finding across these countries is that migrants, as well as women, have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic; both groups are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, and to be more impacted from the long-term consequences of government and public health responses. Lower vaccination intentions and uptakes have also been recorded both among migrant groups and among women.

Based on an analysis of migrant women experiences in three countries, the project aims to understand the impact of government and public health responses on migrant women during COVID-19, in particular by addressing the mechanisms which may have prevented their access to health information and/or vaccination.

The AGDA project brought into sharper focus the gender-paradox of innovation, especially in the area of green transition, while seeking to provide a knowledge base and a shared platform for co-creating better practices for inclusion, diversity and gender equality through processes of programme ideation, design and implementation.

The project consisted of a literature study, a synthesis of existing evaluation and monitoring frameworks and gender plans, as well as dialogues and a co-creation platform and networking of Nordic innovation and research funding bodies, their practitioner and key stakeholders and experts.

Results were communicated through open events, academic conferences, Nordic platforms and social media. We organised three Timeout dialogues on the topic, the first one with stakeholders and academic researchers at the Geography Days 2022 in Tampere, Finland, second with green transition and energy innovation stakeholders in Vaasa, Finland, and the third one with regional research and innovation stakeholders in Sogndal, Norway.

The publication event was organised online. The event was recorded and made available online. In addition, a side event at the Swedish Innovation Days, in collaboration with VINNOVA, Sweden, was organised.  RDI financing organisations and stakeholders from the scientific community have been contacted to deliver the findings as informative info packages.  

The project has produced an overview report of previous research and statistics from the Nordic countries on the topic of young parents’s fertility and cultural conceptions of parenthood, attitudes related to gender equality in parenting. parental leave rights and possibilities to take leave and share it equally between parents.

Youth and student NGOs were invited to participate in the gathering of information for the report, as well as in the discussion of the results. The final report was published in March 2022 and the results were discussed in a webinar in the beginning of April with a wider audience of researchers, civil servants, labour market organisations, youth NGO representatives and politicians from all the Nordic countries

Based on the findings of the overview, a research article (in Finnish) have been published in a the Finnish Youth Research Network. The overview is also expected to lead to further applications to produce new research on the take-up and consequences of parental leave by young people.

The project provided a more nuanced, age-specific understanding of the possibilities and obstacles of gender equality among young parents in the Nordic countries. The similarities and differences in different countries provide valuable input and inspiration for future policies and good practice in promoting a more equal sharing of leave also among young parents, reducing the obstacles of childbearing and improving the wellbeing of young mothers, fathers and their children.

The project aimed at promoting new knowledge that contribute to the enhancement of gender equality among caregivers in the aging sector. The project has developed a broader network through two workshops, and conducted a small-scale study. The participants has contributed to the gathering of existing knowledge on women as caregivers in elderly service sector suffering from inequality and social injustices from diverse perspectives;

•  how women’s career path as care service providers and the value of the job are apparently inconsistent;
• how low salary and early retirement  interact with each other, and provide an unequal situation for women caregivers at the end of their career, which apparently affect their socio-economic status;
• how policies prevailed in labor market interplay in Nordic welfare model when other job sectors are compared?

The project has developed a common understanding, and a methodology to address the issues presented above, identify concrete gaps, and specific socio-cultural challenges in given contexts. The results of the workshops has been used to produce a short report.

This project researched Nordic models of fatherhood and gender equality as hotbeds of welfare innovation and explores to what extent some countries are trying to ‘import’ similar models. Specifically, the project focused on countries that had attempted to follow Nordic models of parental leave with father quotas namely Germany, Japan and Slovenia.

The project compiled research on motivators, forces (actors) and outcomes (take-up) of father quotas in Iceland, Norway and Sweden and investigate to what extent, if any these dimensions are transformed when applied elsewhere. The obvious example was how gender equality motivations might be exchanged for fertility concerns outside Nordic countries. The project initiated a framing of how policies are spread between countries, in particular how Nordic parental leave policies are perceived and used as examples elsewhere.

The project resulted in an article The Nordic Model of Father Quotas in Leave Policies: A Case of Policy Transfer? published in Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 2021