The Transition to Parenthood in the French and German Speaking Parts of Switzerland

Abstract

After the first transition to parenthood, most couples adopt a gendered labor division, where mothers become main caregivers and fathers breadwinners of the family. By comparing two distinct language regions within one country, the present article explores how parents’ gendered labor division comes into existence and what role gendered culture and social policy play. The analysis draws on in-depth interviews with 23 German speaking and 73 French speaking participants from Switzerland. The results reveal that French speaking women and men presume an egalitarian labor division as parents. In German speaking regions, however, participants anticipate that mothers will become the main caregivers and fathers the breadwinners. It is shown that the labor market structure, which is in line with the male breadwinner norm, contributes to men’s full-time employment, whereas mothers’ labor market insertion is influenced by the acceptance of non-parental childcare and to a lesser extent by the offer of childcare facilities. Further, mothers experience more time conflicts than fathers, and the less mothers’ paid work is accepted, the more they suffer from feelings of guilt when being employed.

Division of Labour, Work–Life Conflict and Family Policy: Conclusions and Reflections

“…A series of contributions in this thematic issue put forward that preferences in labour division do not always match with practice (Bornatici & Heers, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). This is attributed to restrictions imposed by the work place, be it the difficulty for men to reduce their work percentages, availability of technical tools to increase flexibility to be productive during care time or the persistence of the "ideal employee" norm (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020).…”

“…A series of contributions in this thematic issue put forward that preferences in labour division do not always match with practice (Bornatici & Heers, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). This is attributed to restrictions imposed by the work place, be it the difficulty for men to reduce their work percentages, availability of technical tools to increase flexibility to be productive during care time or the persistence of the "ideal employee" norm (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). There is also an interaction between the meso and the macro level in the sense that policy can shape values in companies and the economic and political situation can turn countries into victims of globalisation when employers can put pressure on employees to be ever more committed to work, which can lead to stronger corporate "colonisation" where employees can be always reached and work time expands into private time due to technology (Geszler, 2020;Nagy, 2020;Ukhova, 2020).…”

“…Third, gender values need to be taken into account, not only on a macro level but also on the individual and organisational level (Bornatici & Heers, 2020;Ukhova, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). Gender values relate to how people see the roles of the genders, what constitutes a family and how it is organised, how an optimal labour division within families is seen, etc.…”

“…On the micro or individual level, some couples prefer egalitarian arrangements whereas other couples prefer a traditional family organisation. On the meso or economic level, employers and the labour market can facilitate some arrangements or make them impossible to realise (Geszler, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020). Moreover, preferences differ also on the macro or country level and policy can facilitate more or less egalitarian models (e.g., policy can grant long maternity leaves but no parental or paternity leave).…”

“…Mostly focussing on improving female labour participation and facilitating the reconciliation of family and work for women will not likely be successful in achieving a more egalitarian labour division in households. Rather, policy must at the same time work on improving father's opportunities in taking a more important role at home (Aidukaite & Telisauskaite- Cekanavice, 2020;Geszler, 2020;Zimmermann & LeGoff, 2020) and include models enabling parenting and being successful at work for both genders. Technology can be a facilitator in reconciling work and family demands but can have adverse effects if corporate colonisation is not countered (Nagy, 2020).…”