The cornerstone of unity

71 PATERNITY LEAVE
Some years ago British women’s organisations ran a campaign titled “I’d rather be a mother in Finland” but there 
could just as easily have been a parallel campaign called “I’d rather be a father in Finland” for men. The Nordic 
countries are way ahead of the rest of the EU pack with regards to parenthood, and especially fatherhood, 
benefits fathers rarely have the right to independent paternity leave or allowances outwith this geographical area. 
The importance of the father’s role as an active parent started to be emphasised in the 1970s, until which 
time he had been considered as little more than a provider of sperm and financial support. 
Throughout the 1980s, however, men were encouraged to visit Maternity and Well-baby Clinics (innovation 
no. 51) with their pregnant partners and participate in the childbearing process. 
In Finland the right to paternity leave was introduced in 1978 after a decade-long debate which also involved 
the development of a new gender ideology. In 1985 maternity allowance was changed to parental allowance, 
which could, with the mother’s agreement, be partly used by the father, and in the 1990s the whole system was 
reformed to encourage more fathers to make use of it. The right to six days paid leave, which was introduced at 
the beginning of 1991, was targetted directly at fathers. In the severe depression of 1993 the total period of 
parental allowance was shortened, but post partum paternity leave no longer decreased the parental allowance. 
Since 1997 it has also been possible to postpone this paternity leave rather than take it directly after the birth. 
Finnish parental allowance is now paid for 263 working days; the first 105 days (maternity leave) is paid to the 
mother (maternity allowance), while the following 158 days (parental leave) can be paid to either the mother or 
father (parental allowance).
In addition, there is nowadays the separate paternity allowance for father, which should be taken before the 
child is two. Paternity allowance is payable during the paternity leave for 54 working days. Up to 18 days of that 
can consist of a period in which both the father and the mother stay at home. This can be taken at any time 
during maternity or parental leave.
Since the 1990s the level of parental leave taken has remained stable, with use of paternity leave slowly 
growing. About 80 % of entitled men are nowadays using the 18-day period, but about two-thirds of men use 
their entitlement until full 54 days. A more radical share of the leave between mother and father is under a 
constant political debate.Paternity leave is taken more frequently by middle-income white-collar workers and 
specialists in the social, health care and education sector, but it is also used by those in the technical sector and 
industry. Compared with public sector employees, those in the private sector take shorter paternity leave, and 
the full paternity leave is most frequently claimed by men from the social and health care sector and agricultural 

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workers. 
A study revealed that the main reasons that fathers might not use the full leave they are entitled to were the 
insufficiency of the allowance to compensate for lost income and the harmful effect that it might have on their 
careers or ongoing tasks in the workplace. These reasons were offered by fathers themselves. 
I myself had the pleasure of taking paternity leave twice from my post of Minister of Justice in Paavo 
Lipponen’s government (Lipponen was also on paternity leave from his Prime Minister’s post). I took one-week 
paternity leave immediately after the births of both of my daughters and combined the remaining days with my 
summer holiday. I do not think that this did me any harm, but rather had a positive impact on bringing about a 
more equal parenthood. 
Joh
annes Koskinen 
– Minister of Justice 1999–2005,
Chairperson of the Constitutional Committee 2011
–2015,
Director, EBRD 2015-