EARNER-CARER MODEL AT THE CROSSROADS: REFORMS AND OUTCOMES OF SWEDEN'S FAMILY POLICY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Following the 2006 election, the Swedish earner-carer model of family policy seems to have come to an important crossroads, and questions have been raised about the future course of policies. Will the prototypical earner-carer model in Sweden persist? The separate reforms in cash transfers, services, and tax systems in several respects seem to point in contradictory directions, simultaneously introducing new principles of social care. In this article, past and present reforms and potential outcomes of policies are discussed from an institutional and comparative perspective. Reviewing research on outcomes of earner-carer policies for gendered patterns of productive and reproductive work, class-based stratification, child well-being, fertility, and work-family conflict, the article also contributes to the discussion about future challenges for family policy institutions in Sweden and other advanced welfare states.