Stay-at-home fathers on the wane – In comes daddy day! Changing practices of fathering in German-speaking countries

Abstract

Our commentary brings Boyer et al.'s (2017) argument of a 'regendering of care' through men's growing engagement as caregivers into a dialogue with scholarship from German-speaking countries. This literature supports Boyer et al.'s claim of a connection between labour market opportunities and stayat-home fatherhood. However, the research from our language context also suggests that fathers who are not gainfully employed do not necessarily become primary caregivers. Furthermore, the number of stay-athome fathers is shrinking rather than growing. In light of these findings, we suggest shifting the discussion from stay-at-home fathers to fathers as part-time workers and part-time carers. This is where we identify the potential for a subtle revolution that bears the promise of far more wide-ranging changes in the gendering of care. labour market opportunities and stay--at--home fatherhood. However, the research from our language context also suggests that fathers who are not gainfully employed do not necessarily become primary caregivers. Furthermore, the number of stay--at--home fathers is shrinking rather than growing. In light of these findings, we suggest shifting the discussion from stay--at--home fathers to fathers as part--time workers and part--time carers. This is where we identify the potential for a subtle revolution that bears the promise of far more wide--ranging changes in the gendering of care.

La división de los roles de género en las parejas en las que solo trabaja la mujer en Estados Unidos y España

“…Las limitaciones económicas y del mercado laboral y las actitudes igualitarias de género son los factores principales que explican el surgimiento de las familias FBw y por qué una familia se convierte en FBw (Vitali y Arpino, 2016;Kramer y Kramer, 2016). El desempleo masculino es una razón importante que explica por qué la mujer se convierte en la principal fuente de ingresos del hogar (Vitali y Arpino, 2016;Klesment y Bavel, 2017;Schwiter y Baumgarten, 2017). Por otro lado, los cambios hacia actitudes de roles de género más igualitarias que se han producido en las últimas décadas han ayudado a la aceptación de este arreglo de roles (Kramer y Kramer, 2016).…”

The career identity of young working fathers in dual-earner relationships: A family-relatedness of work decisions perspective

“…Finally, we identified the non-conventional negotiation structure, which involved co-parenting but in which fathers had an increased domestic role, due to the demands and circumstances surrounding their wives' employment. In contrast to a stay-at-home dad (Schwiter and Baumgarten, 2017), the fathers in our sample worked fulltime (more than 35 h a week) in addition to their household and childcare responsibilities. Both these types of negotiation structures were made possible by the shift in identity salience for working fathers discussed earlier.…”

Men at work? Debating shifting gender divisions of care

“…Schwiter and Baumgarten’s (2017) commentary on our article argues that an overly narrow focus on stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) is misplaced. They suggest that a regendering of care may equally occur through other shifts in men’s patterns of employment, such as the reduction in weekly hours spent in the labour market which has recently taken place in Switzerland.…”

“…John Adams, a prominent UK stay-at-home dad blogger (dadbloguk.com) noted that his (small) income from blogging would mean that he would not count in national statistics that are primarily concerned with capturing levels of economic activity (Adams 2015). Significant numbers of those men whom Schwiter and Baumgarten (2017) highlight as reconstructing their relationship to the wage-labour market in Switzerland through less than full-time employment and increased responsibilities as carers, may identify as primary caregivers even if they are not recognised as such in formal statistics. The myriad ways in which fathers simultaneously reconstruct their relationship to caregiving and the wage labour market in a Northern European context clearly holds the potential for changing societal norms around both the feminisation of care and expectations related to full-time working.…”