True opportunity means that public responsibility is acknowledged in the area of women's private care-giving. In Finland, the expansion of social care services was part of the expansion of the welfare state in the 1960s and evening out social disparities. Concomitant growth in the public sector provided an important source of employment for women. P re-school daycare is a subjective right in Finland which was fully realised in 1996. The task of municipalities is to arrange care either in day-care centres or in the home for all who need it.
Families pay an earnings-related fee.
W age labour is an either-or phenomenon in Finland. Finnish women experience even part-time work as partial dependency on men. O n the other hand the Finnish practice has been to support homecare of smaller children. Although these privileges extend to fathers as well, only a small minority of fathers use the opportunity for taking parenting or childcare leave. Fathers have been taking advantage of it in increasing numbers.