Sweden is known to have one of the world's most generous parental insurances, both in length and flexibility which has led to a high maternity rate and more women in paid work. The political work on equality in Sweden has the goal that women and men shall have the same power to shape society and their own lives. This has led to legislation aimed at getting fathers to stay more at home with their children. There has been plenty of research on this subject so this study goes off the main track and looks at how legislation around parenthood works for same-sex couples and if paternal leave is shared more equally between same-sex parents than heterosexual parents. Discourse analysis of the legislation and a survey with same-sex families followed by interviews indicate that samesex couples share parental leave more equally than heterosexual couples. Legislation works well for most same-sex families except for the process of related adoption. Reasons for more equal sharing of parental leave is hard to find but could depend on the fact that same-sex couples have been couples for a longer time, than heterosexual couples, before deciding to have children. Wage gap between men and women is a reason why heterosexual couples do not share equally and it could be vice versa for same-sex couples.

Sweden is known to have one of the world's most generous parental insurances, both inlength and flexibility which has led to a high maternity rate and more women in paidwork. The political work on equality in Sweden has the goal that women and men shallhave the same power to shape society and their own lives. This has led to legislationaimed at getting fathers to stay more at home with their children. There has been plenty ofresearch on this subject so this study goes off the main track and looks at how legislationaround parenthood works for same-sex couples and if paternal leave is shared moreequally between same-sex parents than heterosexual parents. Discourse analysis of thelegislation and a survey with same-sex families followed by interviews indicate that samesexcouples share parental leave more equally than heterosexual couples. Legislationworks well for most same-sex families except for the process of related adoption. Reasonsfor more equal sharing of parental leave is hard to find but could depend on the fact thatsame-sex couples have been couples for a longer time, than heterosexual couples, beforedeciding to have children. Wage gap between men and women is a reason whyheterosexual couples do not share equally and it could be vice versa for same-sex couples.