Stimulating (In)equality? The Earnings Penalty in Different-Sex and Female Same-Sex Couples Transitioning to Parenthood in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden

The Nordic countries are known as family-friendly welfare states, yet gendered work-care divisions remain. We use a case study approach focusing on the key differences in work-family policy packages in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Using population registers, we compare the earnings trajectories of same- and different-sex couples for the three years before and five years after a first birth. The findings match theoretical arguments linking cash-for-care policies to familialistic outcomes: They show that in Finland, the institutional framework leads to unequal divisions of paid work and care, resulting in large earnings penalties affecting the birth mother in both same-sex and different-sex couples. In egalitarian Denmark and Sweden, but also in supposedly more familialistic Norway, these penalties are considerably smaller for same-sex couples. This exemplifies how inequalities decrease when policies stimulate equality, and as a result can reduce the influence of heterosexual gender dynamics.