What happens when male statues become fathers for a day? A creative campaign in Sweden is challenging traditional norms about parenting roles.

Imagine a bronze statue of a stoic leader, now wearing a baby sling with a doll nestled inside.

In November, on International Men’s Day, male statues across Sweden were adorned with baby slings and carriers as part of a unique campaign to spotlight unequal parenting responsibilities.

Traditionally representing power, labor, or other masculine attributes, these statues were reimagined to symbolize fathers as caregivers. The campaign, organized by the think tank Arena Idé, is part of an initiative aimed at encouraging fathers to spend more time with their children and urging employers to play a larger role in enabling this.

Despite Sweden’s globally recognized parental leave policies, significant disparities remain. Swedish fathers take only 30.9% of parental leave days and 38% of sick leave to care for children.

A recent Novus survey, conducted in collaboration with Make Equal, further reveals that expectations around parental leave remain unequal in Swedish workplaces. Through this campaign, Arena Idé hopes to challenge these norms and has proposed an employer bonus for workplaces that encourage an equal division of parental leave.

The statues involved in the campaign were decorated with dolls in baby slings and carriers.This created a contrast between the statues’ traditional symbolism and the modern role of engaged fathers.

Vilgot Österlund, a statistician at Arena Idé, emphasizes the importance of changing workplace norms: “When discussing gender equality in workplaces, the focus is often on women and the negative consequences of inequality for them. But here, we see that men are also losing out on something invaluable – time with their children. Through the statue campaign, the new statistics, and our proposals, we hope to make this clearer!”

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‘it is a wise man who knows his child.’

-william shakespeare

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Source credits: Creative Street Art on Equal Parenting, Arena Ide