ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the changes in family diversity within the social, cultural and legal context of the Swedish welfare state. We focus on three distinctive features, deeply rooted in Swedish law and policy that have shaped family law, discourses and practices of doing a family: (1) the framing of gender equality; (2) the construction and privileging of biological fatherhood; and (3) the mother/father binary in the heteronormative family. The gender equality framework has allowed for agency and choice in the doing of family. The latter two have impeded LGBTQA+ couples and single women from forming families through access to MAR and ultimately from achieving the full legal recognition of their parenthood. Throughout the chapter, we reveal the complexities, contradictions and ambivalent positions in Swedish policy and law by tracing the barriers that had to be overcome and the challenges that remain for the recognition of diverse family forms.
