The family in Norwegian society

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The family in Norwegian society

• Anne Skevik Grødem,
• NOVA Norwegian Social Research

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What is a family?

• Blood relations,
• Legal relations (marriage)
• A set of functions
• Production
• Reproduction
• Distinguish between family and household
• Household People who live in the same house, and
  who regularly have meals together

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Married women with children under 16 in the
labour force, 1972-1999
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What is the family?

• A contested political question!
• Haven in a heartless world
• A site of oppression and conflicting interests
• The basic unit of society
• A changing institution

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Family trends in Norway

• Delayed marriages
• Delayed childbearing
• ? extended youth period, singledom, cohabitation
• Stable, comparatively high fertility
• High and stable rates of extra-marital birth
• High and stable divorce rates
• ? many lone parents, many non-resident parents,
  many adults living alone

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Cohabitation

• A paper-less marriage or a modern form of
  engagement?
• Illegal in Norway until 1972!
• Much less stable than marriage

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Marriage in Norway

• Anyone who is over 18 and single is free to marry
• Illegal to marry parents/ grandparents/ children/
  grandchildren, and siblings
• Only valid if it is freely entered into

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who are cohabiting, married or living alone,
different age groups, 2002-2004
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of women in different age groups cohabiting,
various years
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of women aged 25-29 who are married or
cohabiting, various years
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Mean age at first marriage, men and women,
1961-2003
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of marriages between previously unmarried and
previously married, early 1960s and 2003
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Homosexual marriage

• Registered partnerships introduced in 1993
• Same-sex couples can register their partnerships.
  This gives them all the same rights and duties as
  married couples have, except
• They cannot be married in a church ceremony
• They cannot adopt children together, or legally
  be inseminated by a sperm donor

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Numbers of registered partnerships, 1993-2003
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Divorce

• Either party can apply for a formal separation
• After one year of formal separation (or two years
  of informal separation), either partner can apply
  for divorce
• The parties do not have to agree, nor do they
  have to give a reason for divorcing

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Divorce

• Divorcing couples who have joint children under
  16 are obliged to undergo counselling. The aim of
  this counselling is not to save the marriage, but
  to ensure that the parents have reached a
  workable agreement about arrangements for
  children. This counselling is also mandatory for
  cohabiting couples with joint children.

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The divorce rate, 1959-2005
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Divorce rates in selected European countries and
the USA, ca. 2002
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To sum up

• Family patterns are much more unstable than they
  were only a generation ago
• People marry later. Cohabitation is the most
  common way of living together among young
  couples.
• The divorce rate has increased considerably
• More people are living alone
• Divorced men and women frequently marry new
  partners they do not lose faith in marriage!

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Child-bearing

• Fertility rates have fallen, but are still higher
  in the Nordic countries than in most other
  European countries
• Many children are born to cohabiting parents
• Many children are living with lone parents,
  mainly lone mothers

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Fertility rates Norway, and the reproduction
level
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Fertility rates Norway, and the reproduction
level
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European fertility rates (selected countries)
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Mean age at first birth
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Mean age at first birth
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(No Transcript)
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of live births outside marriage
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Children at different ages, by parents marital
status. 2006
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Children in different family forms, 2005
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Non-resident fathers contact with their children
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The family and the welfare state

• Division of labour
• Increased demand for work/ family reconciliation
  policies
• Increased demand for social care services
  (child-care, care for the elderly)
• Child-centred social investment strategy and
  policies to combat child poverty

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Main elements of present Norwegian family policies

• Universal child benefit
• Parental leave
• 44 weeks with full wage replacement or 54 weeks
  with 80 wage replacement (up to a ceiling)
• 9 weeks are reserved for the mother, 6 weeks
  reserved for the father
• Benefits for lone parents
• Child-care services
• Cash-for-childcare
• Care services for the elderly

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(No Transcript)
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Proportions and numbers of fathers taking
parental leave, Norway, 1991-2006
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Proportions and numbers of fathers taking
parental leave, Norway, 1991-2006
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(No Transcript)
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The division of labour between families and
welfare states

• Crowding out?
• Crowding in?
• No influence?
• Division of work?

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• Cant each and every person, also in Norway,
  take on some responsibility for their parents who
  have given birth to them and raised them? This
  idea is seen as primitive and anti-freedom in
  present-day Norway. And it does not match the
  individualistic and selfish direction Norwegians
  in some ways have moved, there the only emphasis
  is on self-actualisation and the fulfilment of
  ones own needs.
• Attiq Ahmad Sohail, medical student, Aftenposten
  18th April 2008)

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• It is well documented that Norwegian family
  members take a high degree of responsibility for
  their elderly and disabled, and this activity is
  not declining, quite the opposite. Sohail also
  claims that the idea of caring for elderly
  parents is seen as primitive and anti-freedom in
  present-day Norway. Where did he get that idea?
  The claim is entirely unsubstantiated, the
  opposite is well documented. Moreover, his claim
  is an insult to all those who spend enormous time
  and energy in the best interest of frail elderly
  parents year after year. It is disappointing,
  even frightening, to read such nonsense from a
  University student.
• Tor Inge Romøren, professor in ageing research,
  NOVA, Aftenposten 22th April 2008

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Forms of help to the frail elderly, different
countries
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Quotes from Norwegian respondents (source
Daatland and Herlofson 2004)

• Society has the main responsibility, but the
  family can step up with other forms of help.
• (son of a frail elderly parent)
• The family must be there and provide support,
  but not as an obligation or a job. The main
  responsibility should be on the public and on
  professionals.
• (daughter of a frail elderly parent)
• You should not expect care and nursing from your
  children, but of course that they should support
  you, come to visit and so on.
• (frail elderly Norwegian mother)

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To sum up

• Norwegian fertility rates are below replacement
  level, but above the European average. People
  have children later in life.
• Increasing proportions of children are living
  with only one of their biological parents,
  usually the mother, but
• Almost all these children have some contact with
  their fathers, and the majority have frequent and
  regular contact.
• The welfare state is an active partner for
  Norwegian families
• Still, there is a lot of informal support both
  in cash and in kind between young adults and
  their parents, and between frail elderly parents
  and their children/ grandchildren