Stay-at-Home Fathers and Breadwinning Mothers …

Gender, Couple Dynamics, and Social Change

an article by Noelle Chesley (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) published in Gender & Society Volume 25 Number 5 (October 2011)

Abstract

I examine experiences of married couples to better understand whether economic shifts that push couples into gender-atypical work/family arrangements influence gender inequality. I draw on in-depth interviews conducted in 2008 with stay-at-home husbands and their wives in 21 married-couple families with children (42 individual interviews). I find that the decision to have a father stay home is heavily influenced by economic conditions, suggesting that men’s increased job instability and shifts in the relative employment conditions of husbands and wives push some men into at-home fatherhood. However, this shift in family arrangements can promote change toward greater gender equality even in couples that initially hold entrenched, gendered beliefs. The data indicate that at-home fathers come to value their increased involvement in children’s care in ways that reduce gender differences in parenting and that have the potential to translate into institutional change, particularly when they re-enter the labour force. Furthermore, at-home father arrangements generally appear to provide increased support for women’s employment and promote changes in women’s work behaviour that may reduce inequities that stem from traditionally gendered divisions in work/family responsibilities.

Hazel’s comment:
What I would now like to see, whether studied in the UK or elsewhere, is whether employers are less likely to favour a male returner to the labour market. My instinct tells me that a child-rearing break is acceptable for a woman but not for a man when wanting to take up some form of employment.

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