Northern Europe, Scandinavia

This book explores the recent experiences of diverse paid care workers in four very different national contexts – Finland, Canada, South Africa and England – to learn from their experiences during COVID-19 and its aftermath.

This book explores how race, sexuality and gender are employed in political projects of belonging, whilst examining the implications for individual identity formation, in the context of Sweden.

This compelling book examines parental leave policies in Nordic countries, looking at how these laws encourage men towards life courses with greater care responsibilities. It considers the impact that these policies have had on gender equality and how they have led to a re-gendering of men by promoting ‘caring masculinities’.

Using Sweden as a case study, this book combines theories of family practices, care and childhood studies with the personal perspectives of nannies, au pairs, parents and children to provide new understandings of what constitutes care in nanny families.

This is the first book to explode the myth of Swedish gender equality, offering both a new perspective for an international audience, and suggesting how equality might be re-thought more generally.