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On International Men’s Day, November 19, male statues across Sweden were adorned with baby slings, carriers, and dolls. From Malmö in the south to Umeå in the north, several Swedish cities bore witness to statues transforming into fathers through the brilliant #Kvantitetstidspappan campaign, conceived by the Swedish think tank Arena Idé.
Sweden boasts some of the world’s most robust parental leave policies, offering both parents a combined total of 480 days’ parental benefit per child. Though these days are intended to be shared between parents, Swedish fathers take only 30.9% of parental leave days and 38% of sick leave to care for children. Roughly translating to “Quantity Time Dad,” Kvantitetstidspappan challenged these disparities in a subversive celebration of International Men’s Day.
Arena Idé and fathers around the country located male statues and wrapped baby accessories around them, including Standing Man in Umeå, Hjalmar Branting in Stockholm, and Det svenska tungsinnet in Malmö. The baby slings and carriers diminished traditional associations with stoicism and masculine power, instead reimagining these statues as contemporary models of fatherly engagement.
“When discussing equality in the work place, we often focus on women and the negative consequences inequality has upon them. But here, we see that men also lose out on something important—time with their children,” Vilgot Österlund, a statistician at Arena Idé said in a statement. “With our statue campaign, new statistics, and our proposals, we hope to make this a little clearer!”
The campaign urged workplaces to reconsider parental expectations, especially as they related to fathers. Arena Idé proposed reforms such as redistribution of parental allowance days, increasing mutual parental leave days, and introducing employer bonuses for workplaces that encourage equal leave between parents.
This initiative generated tremendous visibility across Swedish media outlets, as well as on Instagram. One user shared a post that said “more dads should spend more time at home with their children, something that we as a society should encourage through reformation and pep!”
To learn more about the Kvantitetstidspappan campaign, visit Arena Idé’s website.
For International Men’s Day, male statues across Sweden were adorned with baby carriers, slings, and dolls.
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The campaign, called #Kvantitetstidspappan, sought to challenge disparities between parental leave policies and expectations.
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Male statues, traditionally symbolic of stoicism or masculine strength, transformed into contemporary models of engaged fatherhood.
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The think tank behind the campaign, Arena Idé, released an in-depth report about workplace disparities and proposals of how to encourage fathers to spend more time at home with their children.
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