You can't eat the cake and have it too

In Sweden, there is often talk of women's traps, i.e. women who perform various unpaid tasks at the expense of paid work. At the moment, there is talk in Sweden about the differences regarding men's and women's different pensions. What is always mentioned in discussions like these is that the woman always takes greater responsibility for the home and above all the children at the expense of career, salary and future pension.

The variable that is missing for the discussion to be fairer is that many women do not want to share the parental leave. They want to be the "main parent". Several of my acquaintances and friends, for example, refused to share parental leave. A number of them said that quote "this is my time, I will not share" unquote.

Parental leave in Sweden amounts to 480 days of paid leave, which is financed with tax money. If a parent wants to hand over any of their parental days to the other parent, a maximum of 180 days can be carried over, that is, 60 days cannot be handed over to the chagrin of many. If a parent has sole custody of their child, all 480 days belong to that parent.