Real Men Push Strollers - At Least in Sweden They Do

Sweden is one of the most egalitarian societies in the world and, perhaps, that is another reason why I so much enjoy living in Sweden whenever I have an opportunity to.  I have been lucky to hold a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, and am now in my third year as a Visiting Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. The latter commitment involves a multiple weeks in residence, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Sweden has generous parental leave policies, among other policies, that support both men and women. And my male colleagues at the university enjoy taking parental leaves and are very serious about them. This makes for a wonderful professional and personal climate.

Over the past several days, while walking to lunch in beautiful Gothenburg, or just doing errands, I decided to take photos of men pushing strollers because I love this aspect of Swedish culture.

Men, women, and children all benefit from such a supportive set of governmental policies!

A Photo Essay of Gothenburg, Sweden to Capture the Memories

I made it yesterday evening from Gothenburg, Sweden through Amsterdam Schiphol airport on Delta/KLM and had wonderful seatmates on both legs of my flight. On the first leg,  I set next to a chemical engineer who received her degree from Chalmers and was going on a business trip to The Netherlands and, on the second leg (the long one over the Atlantic), I sat next to an electrical engineer from Gothenburg, who also had received his degree from Chalmers, and  who was going for training in Boston. He works on big data and visualization so our conversation flowed.

Both confirmed one theme that I have been writing about on this blog for the past month from Sweden where I have been living part-time this year as a Visiting Professor -- work-life balance is not an issue in Sweden due its parental leave policies and other benefits.

I thought it appropriate (and somehow we made it through Logan despite the enhanced security since President Obama was also in Boston), to capture some of the special images of Gothenburg, Sweden  with recent photos.

The photos  speak for themselves. The above joke one was taken in one of the numerous cafes in this city.

No wonder Scandinavians are considered to be the happiest people on earth.