Becoming primary caregivers? Unemployed fathers caring alone in Spain
Search for other papers by Concepción Castrillo in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Jesús Rogero-García in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Pedro Romero-Balsas in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Gerardo Meil in
Current site
Google Scholar
This article analyses how unemployed fathers with employed partners broach childcare and how they conceive of their own identities. It aims primarily to determine whether these fathers actually play the part of primary caregivers. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with 26 unemployed fathers who spent at least three months caring for their children. The findings show that these fathers engaged intensively in a wide variety of caring tasks. Nonetheless, their role as primary caregivers is called into question on the grounds of attitude. They tended to take for granted that they should set aside time and space for themselves, adding to their partners’ dual workload. Moreover, the overall responsibility for care fell largely on mothers. Subjectively speaking, while one group of fathers resorted to egalitarian precepts to normalise their situation, for many others, the inability to meet the standard expectations of traditional masculinity prompted an identity conflict.
-
Ahmed, S. (1998) Differences that Matter: Feminist Theory and Postmodernism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Alonso, L.E. (1998) La Mirada Cualitativa en Sociología: Una Aproximación Interpretative, Madrid: Fundamentos.
-
Barbeta-Viñas, M. and Cano, T. (2017) ¿Hacia un nuevo modelo de paternidad? Discursos sobre el proceso de implicación paterna en la España urbana, Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 159: 13–30, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.159.13
-
Brandth, B. (2012) Emotional dimensions of fathering and work–life boundaries, in P. McDonald and E. Jeanes (eds) Men, Wage Work and Family, London: Routledge, pp 114–28.
-
Brandth, B. and Kvande, E. (2003) Father presence in child care, in A.M. Jensen, and L. McKee (eds) Children and the Changing Family: Between Transformation and Negotiation, London: Routledge Falmer, pp 61–75.
-
Bubeck, D. (1995) Care, Gender and Justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-
Connell, C. (2010) Doing, undoing or redoing gender? Learning from the workplace experiences of transpeople, Gender & Society, 24(1): 31–55. doi: 10.1177/0891243209356429
-
Craig, L. (2006) Does father care mean fathers share? A comparison of how mothers and fathers in intact families spend time with their children, Gender & Society, 20: 259–81. doi: 10.1177/0891243205285212
-
Doucet, A. (2017) The ethics of care and the radical potential of fathers ‘home alone on leave’: care as practice, relational ontology, and social justice, in M. O’Brien and K. Wall (eds) Comparative Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality: Fathers on Leave Alone, New York: Springer, pp 11–28.
-
Doucet, A. (2006) Do Men Mother? Fathering, Care, and Domestic Responsibility, Toronto University Press.
-
Doucet, A. (2009) Gender equality and gender differences: parenting, habitus and embodiment, Canadian Review of Sociology, 46(2): 103–21. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-618X.2009.01206.x
-
Eerola, P. and Mykkänen, J. (2013) Paternal masculinities in early fatherhood: dominant and counter narratives by Finnish first-time fathers, Journal of Family Issues, 36(12): 1674–701. doi: 10.1177/0192513X13505566.
-
Eldén, S. (2012) Scripts for the good couple: individualization and the reproduction of gender inequality, Acta Sociologica, 55(1): 3–18.
-
Elliott, K. (2016) Caring masculinities. theorizing an emerging concept, Men and Masculinities, 19(3): 240–59. doi: 10.1177/1097184X15576203
-
Fairclough, N. and Wodak, R. (1997) Critical discourse analysis, in T.A. van Dijk (ed) Discourse as Social Interaction, London: Sage, pp 258–84.
-
Fernández-Cornejo, J.A., Escot, L., Del-Pozo, E. and Castellanos-Serrano, C. (2016) Do fathers who took childbirth leave become more involved in their children’s care? The case of Spain, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 47(2): 169–91.
-
Flaquer, L.l., Moreno, A. and Cano, T. (2016) Changing family models: emerging new opportunities for fathers in Catalonia (Spain)?, in I. Crespi and E. Ruspini (eds) Balancing Work and Family in a Changing Society: The Fathers’ Perspective, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp 65–81.
-
Flaquer, L.l., Navarro-Varas, L., Antón-Alonso, F., Ruiz-Forès, N. and Consola, A. (2019) La implicación paterna en el cuidado de los hijos en España antes y durante la recesión económica, Revista Española de Sociología, 22(2): 249–68.
-
Gee, J. (2004) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, London: Routledge.
-
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Cambridge: Polity.
-
González, M.J., Guerrero, T.J., Morales, P.A., Morillas, C.B., Folgueras, M.D., Lapuerta, I., García, T.M., Monferrer, J.M. and Seiz, M. (eds) (2015) Padres y Madres Corresponsables. Una Utopía Real, [Co-responsible parents: a feasible utopia] Madrid: Catarata.
-
Grbich, C.F. (1997) Male primary caregivers in Australia. The process of becoming and being, Acta Sociologica, 40(4): 335–55. doi: 10.1177/000169939704000401
-
Gutiérrez-Domènech, M. (2010) Parental employment and time with children in Spain, Review of Economics of the Household, 3(8): 393–408.
-
Hall, S. (1996) Who needs ‘identity’?, in S. Hall and P. Du Guy (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, London: Sage, pp 1–17.
-
Hochschild, A.R. and Machung, A. (2012) The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home, New York: Penguin.
-
Hunter, S.C., Riggs, D.W. and Augoustinos, M. (2017) Hegemonic masculinity versus a caring masculinity: implications for understanding primary caregiving fathers, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 11(3). doi: 10.1111/spc3.12307
-
Jäger, S. and Maier, F. (2009) Theoretical and methodological analysis aspects of Foucauldian critical discourse analysis and dispositive analysis, in R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage, pp 34–61.
-
Kitterød, R.H. (2016) The Organisation and Division of Caregiving Work Among Parents In Norway. Evidence from Focus Groups with Full-Time Working Mothers and Fathers. Report from the Gender Pay Gap and Gender Care Gap Project, Oslo: Institute for Social Research.
-
Marsiglio, W. and Pleck, J. (2004) Fatherhood and masculinities, in M. Kimmel, J. Hearn and R.W. Conell (eds) Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp 249–69.
-
Martín Criado, E. (2014) Mentiras, inconsistencias y ambivalencias. Teoría de la acción y análisis del discurso, Revista Internacional de Sociología, 72(1): 115–38.
-
Meil, G. (2013) European men’s use of parental leave and their involvement in child care and housework, Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 44(5): 557–70. doi: 10.3138/jcfs.44.5.557
-
Meil, G., Rogero-García, J. and Romero-Balsas, P. (2017) Los Permisos Parentales Como Instrumentos Para la Igualdad de Género, Observatorio Social ‘la Caixa’, febrero 2007, disponible en https://observatoriosociallacaixa.org/-/los-permisos-parentales-como-instrumentos-para-la-igualdad-de-genero
-
Miller, T. (2011) Falling back into gender? Men’s narratives and practices around first-time fatherhood, Sociology, 45(6): 1094–109. doi: 10.1177/0038038511419180.
-
Monferrer, J., Abril, P. and Jurado, T. (2016) Desempleo y paternidad en España, XII Congreso Español de Sociología, Gijón: Federación Española de Sociología.
-
Moreno Mínguez, A. (2015) De la familia de un sustentador económico a la familia de doble ingreso, in C. Torres Albero (ed) España 2015. Situación Social, Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, pp 315–20.
-
Morgan, D. (1992) Discovering Men: Critical Studies on Men & Masculinities, London: Routledge.
-
O’Brien, M. (2009) Fathers, parental leave policies, and Iinfant quality of life: international perspectives and policy impact, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 624(1): 190–213, https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716209334349
-
O’Brien, M. and Wall, K. (eds) (2017) Comparative Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality. Fathers on Leave Alone, New York: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-42970-0.
-
Orbuch, T.L. (1997) People’s accounts count: the sociology of accounts, Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 455–78. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.23.1.455
-
Rebughini, P. (2014) Subject, subjectivity, subjectivation, Sociopedia.isa, 1–11.
-
Reimer, T. (2017) Measuring German fathers’ involvement in childcare, Men and Masculinities, 20(5): 588–608, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X17728318
-
Roy, K. (2004) You can’t eat love: constructing provider role expectations for low-income and working-class fathers, Fathering, 2(3): 253–76. doi: 10.3149/fth.0203.253
-
Roy, K.M. and Dyson, O. (2010) Making daddies into fathers: community-based fatherhood programs and the construction of masculinities for low-income African American men, American Journal of Community Psychology, 45: 139–54. doi: 10.1007/s10464-009-9282-4
-
Strier, R. (2014) Unemployment and fatherhood: gender, culture and national context, Gender Work and Organization, 21(5): 395–410. doi: 10.1111/gwao.12044.
-
Swidler, A. (2013) Talk of Love. How Culture Matters, Chicago: University Chicago Press.
-
Tena Guerrero, O. and Jiménez Anaya, P. (2006) Estrategias para mantener el modelo de masculinidad en padres-esposos desempleados, La Ventana, Revista de Estudios de Género, 24: 440–62.
-
Thébaud, S. (2010) Masculinity, bargaining, and breadwinning: understanding men’s housework in the cultural context of paid work, Gender & Society, 24(3): 330–54.
-
West, A.F., Lewis, S., Ram, B., Barnes, J., Leach, P., Sylva, K. and Stein, A. (2009) Why do some fathers become primary caregivers for their infants? A qualitative study, Child: Care, Health and Development, 35(2): 208–16. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2008.00926.x
-
West, C. and Zimmerman, D. (1987) Doing gender, Gender & Society, 1(2): 125–51. doi: 10.1177/0891243287001002002
-
Wodak, R. (2014) Critical discourse analysis, in The Routledge Companion to English Studies, London: Routledge, pp 302–17.
Search for other papers by Concepción Castrillo in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Jesús Rogero-García in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Pedro Romero-Balsas in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Gerardo Meil in
Current site
Google Scholar
| May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 700 | 310 | 103 |
| Full Text Views | 49 | 3 | 2 |
| PDF Downloads | 33 | 6 | 3 |
Institutional librarians can find more information about free trials here
We are a leading social science publisher
committed to making a difference.
Bristol University Press and
Policy Press
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk