Geographical Variation in Local Gender Contracts in Sweden

Abstract Despite Sweden’s national gender-neutral family and social policies, local differences in gender contracts exist have been related to the structure of labour market cultural traditions. Existing studies are outdated used relatively large administratively defined areas, which may lead several measurement interpretation errors. This paper examines geographical variation present-day Sweden using individualized neighbourhoods on different scales. Gender operationalized six indicators level family, politics labour. We identify five types contracts: metropolitan contract, progressive suburban commuter contract traditional contract. The most equal patterns found other urban with high shares fathers taking parental leave highest women education gainful employment, low young mothers. analyses give evidence considerable instead a dominant each region. findings stimulate further research policies inequality.