David Cameron is examining the idea of tax breaks for people who hire cleaning or other household services, as a way of generating extra jobs and freeing more women so they can join the workforce.

Speaking at a Nordic summit in Sweden, he said he was interested in its government's tax break that has been praised for reducing the hidden economy in cheap domestic labour.

The break, however, has proved hugely controversial in Sweden, leading to claims that it is regressive and class bound.

The Swedish government allows people to deduct from their tax bill half the cost of household services such as cleaning, cooking, lawn-mowing, snow-shovelling and babysitting. The concession is said to have created more than 5,000 jobs.

But social democrats have claimed that a relatively small group of wealthy Swedes, earning more than 50,000 kronor (£4,700) a month, are far more likely to make use of the subsidised services than lower paid households. And mainly immigrant labour has benefited, they say.

Of the nine countries at the summit, seven were outside the eurozone. Speaking after the meeting with Nordic leaders, Cameron said he had been inspired by the measures in those countries designed to boost women's participation in the labour force. "I think the importance of the flexible parental leave that many of the countries here already have, and we are looking to introduce, is absolutely vital. That point was made by a number of participants."

He also said he did not rule out introducing quotas for women in boardrooms as a last resort, but his preference was to see indicative targets. He said there was overwhelming evidence that companies were better run if men and women worked alongside each other.

"So the real nub of the issue is how do we accelerate, how do we fast-forward to having at least 30% of boards made up by women? That's where you get down to quotas, which I don't think you should ever rule out," he said. "If you can't get there in other ways, then maybe you have to have quotas." But he later clarified that he wanted to "go as far as we can on this agenda without taking that step".

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, claimed at the summit that a male atmosphere created more risk and a greater chance of corruption. "To say the least, more women in the financial sector would be very good in bringing down the risk level."

His remarks took him close to the view of some feminists who claim the financial crash would never have happened had Lehman Brothers been Lehman Sisters.

Britain is working to implement the recommendations of a February 2011 report by Mervyn Davies concerned with increasing the number of women on company boards.

Women now account for 15% of directors of companies in the FTSE-100 index, up from 12.5% last year; and all-male boards in the FTSE, have dropped from 21 last year to 10 at present.

Cameron also discussed the need for workers to stay in the labour force for longer. He said: "I don't think anyone is saying you must work until you are 75. I think what we are all saying is that we need to have greater flexibility."

He said he was interested in a scheme in Norway where the state pension age rose automatically as people lived longer, and allows for a more flexible retirement.

Norwegians are free to choose the age at which they start to claim their pension, with higher payments to those who choose to wait the longest, up to 75.

But a Downing Street spokesman insisted Cameron was only exchanging policy ideas, and said nothing was going to be rushed into hard policy overnight.

Reinfeldt said the fact that the average global life expectancy has risen from around 46 years in 1950, to nearly 70 today — and 80 in the EU — has changed the premise for pension systems.

He singled out Iceland as a country that has managed to keep people in the work force longer. Prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir is still working at 69, and the nation's average retirement age is 67.