Feminists across nations demand gender equality. Resistance against long-lasting patterns of inequality in society, at work and within the family is growing. New patterns of gender relations prevail across Europe and serve as examples of the ongoing resistance against gender inequalities. Female employment continues to expand. As a result, the male-breadwinner model has lost its dominance throughout Europe, albeit with considerable variations between member states (Crompton, 1999, 2006; Daly, 2000; Lewis, 2001, 2003, 2009; Hantrais, 2004; Lewis and Giullari, 2005). Men no longer necessarily have sole responsibility for the household's income, and women are no longer the sole providers of (unpaid) household labour and childcare. The hegemony of the nuclear family has also been shaken, if not dethroned, by, for example, rising numbers of single mothers and of new family forms (Hobson, 1990; Silva and Smart, 1999; Björnberg and Kollind, 2003). On the basis of these tendencies, some observers speak about a shift from the male-breadwinner model to an ‘adult worker model’ (Lewis and Giullari, 2005).

Balancing work and family life has in this context emerged as one of the most pressing political concerns in Europe today. How can European welfare states cope with the current and future needs of working parents for childcare, parental insurance or, for that matter, care of their own parents? EU member states all address these issues in a wide variety of ways.

Against this background, Nordic family policy has – and not for the first time in history – come into the international limelight. Of particular interest is the assumed connection between labour market participation, fertility rates (and family relations) and gender equality. Here, the Nordic countries stand out in an international comparison, with parallel high levels of female labour market participation and fertility. This pattern may be seen as an outcome of political initiatives to offer generous, gender-neutral parental insurance and publicly funded, high-quality childcare, as well as a general emphasis on gender equality throughout public policy (Ellingsæter and Leira, 2007).

A significant feature of the development of Nordic welfare policies is the importance attributed to female employment. The notion of the ‘gender-equal family’ and the discourse on gender neutrality emerged with the growing labour shortages and the development of the so-called sex-role debate in the 1960s (Dahlström et al, 1962; Hirdman, 1990, 1998; Acker et al, 1992; Baude, 1992; Florin and Karlsson, 2000; Leira, 2002; Roman, 2008).