Equal Opportunities [antikvár]

MORE AND MORE SWEDES ... According to Helén Markiund, population statistician at Statistics Sweden, Swedish women have one of the highest rates of childbirth in Europe, and she is convinced that the country's high fertility rate is directly linked to political decisions. "In Sweden, it is possible to be both a parent and gainfully employed, thanks to political decisions that introduced parental insurance, expanded child care, prohibited discrimination against parents, for instance. "Much of this is only speculation; however, at least one researcher has demonstrated a direct correlation between political decisions and fertility. This occurred when the regulations were changed so that part-time work following the birth of a child counted as full-time work for the purpose of calculating how much parental benefit a person was entitled to for the next child, provided that it was born within 30 months of the previous one. Within a period of nine months, this one political decision altered childbirth patterns significantly. Parents who planned to have several children dined their pregnancies in order to maximize their financial situation." Research has shown that high birth rates in industrialized countries are not-as was previously thought-linked to low female employment rates; rather, the exact opposite is true. Since the earlyl980s, an increase in the birth rate has gone hand-in-hand with the high female employment rate. More children are born when a woman knows she can both be a mother and hold down a job.