GENPARENT North: Our research shows that gender norms take a strong toll on different-sex couples, whereas same-sex couples are better able to escape heteronormative pressures. Contributing to this is the study by Moberg & Van der Vleuten (2022), comparing parental leave use in biological different-sex couples to couples where the child was adopted. Adoptive parents should be better able to share the leave, yet the difference in the mothers leave use between the two groups is small. One potential reason could be that different-sex couples benefit financially from dividing care and paid work unequally. Yet, this does not seem to be the case. Comparing different-sex and same-sex couples’ household income in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, Van der Vleuten, Evertsson & Moberg (2023) find no differences in household income (including or excluding social transfers) between the two types of couples. Hence, results suggest no financial benefits to specialization (in paid work vs care).
Adding to this, Evertsson, Moberg & van der Vleuten follows different-sex and female same-sex couples from a few years before the birth of the child to 5 years after in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Results show that the family leave policy frameworks have significant implications for the earnings trajectories of the parents and that Finland’s institutional context stimulates unequal divisions of paid work and care.
GENPARENT Regime: Evertsson, Jaspers & Moberg (2020), introduce the concept of parentalization, defined as the ability to become parents and be recognized as such, legally and via social policies. The concept is applied in analysis of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, presenting trends in the number of children zero years of age in same-sex couples in the period from the early 1990s until 2018. In a study of the Netherlands, Jaspers, Mazrekaj & Machado (2024) show that the partner’s gender matter for the hours worked. Focusing on individuals who have lived with both a male and a female partner, they find that both men and women work more when partnered with a female compared to a male partner.
A finding when initializing the GENPARENT project was that (especially female) same-sex couples in the US tended to be have lower income and lower socio-economic status compared to different-sex couples. This stood in contrast to the findings for Sweden and the Netherlands where female couples were higher educated/higher income than women in different-sex couples. To try to understand the differences, Machado, Evertsson & Jaspers, provide comparable estimates of socioeconomic characteristics of different-sex, female same-sex, and male same-sex couples with and without children (joint or step-children only) in the Netherlands, Sweden and the US. Income differences between female same-sex couples with a joint child and those with stepchildren are larger in the US, suggesting stronger selection into joint parenthood compared to Sweden and the Netherlands.
GENPARENT Voice: Based on interviews with lesbian couples expecting a baby, our studies in Sweden and the Netherlands suggests that it is common that both partners want to carry a child and that age often is important in determining who will carry first when couples plan to have two children (Eriksson Kirsch & Evertsson 2023; Geerts & Evertsson 2023). In line with findings from quantitative research (Evertsson & Boye 2018), financial arguments or negotiations including relative resources in income or joint household income did not seem important in the data collected. Follow-up interviews with couples in Sweden when children are two to three years of age show that the mothers often share the care of the child equally and that strong norms regarding good mothering and intensive parenting to some extent result in unreachable demands.
