Fathers, Childcare and Work

Rosy Musumeci is Research Fellow in Sociology at University of Turin, Italy, working on the Horizon 2020-funded EXCEPT project on European youth and the labour market. Her main research interests are transitions to parenthood, work-life balance, job insecurity and the social exclusion of youth. She was co-ordinator of the FAMnet Equalsoc network Practices and Policies Around Parenthood: Towards New Models of Fatherhood?, and is a member of the international TransPARENT network. Arianna Santero is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Turin, Italy. Her research expertise focuses on gender relations, migration processes and social inequalities. She is participating in the Eramus+ project JUMP - Juggling Motherhood and Profession, the bEUcitizen project All Rights Reserved? Barriers Towards European Citizenship and InFact – Changing Families and Changing Institutions. She was co-ordinator of the FAMnet Equalsoc network Practices and Politics Around Parenthood: Towards New Models of Fatherhood?

• IntroductionCaring Fathers in Discouraging Contexts? A Multidimensional Theoretical Framework; Rosy Musumeci and Arianna Santero Part I: Fathers' Experiences, Attitudes and Beliefs 1. Anticipating and Practicing Fatherhood in Spain; María José González, Irene La Puerta, Teresa Martín-García and Marta Seiz 2. When Husbands and Wives Don't Agree, Who 'Wins'? Value/Practice Dissonance in The Division of Work Around Parenthood in Italy; Manuela Naldini and Cristina Solera 3. Fathers And Child Raising in Mexico in the Early 21st Century; Olga Rojas and Mario Martínez Salgado4. Working Fathers and Childcare in The Czech Republic; Olga Nešporová and Kristýna Janurová Part II: Work Organizations and Child Care Experts Cultures 5. Formal and Informal Workplace Support for New Fathers in Spain; Teresa Jurado-Guerrero, Jordi Monferrer, Carmen Botía and Francisco Abril 6. The Influence of Infancy Experts and Workplace Cultures in Work-Childcare Reconciliation Practices Among Native and Immigrant Fathers in Italy; Rosy Musumeci and Arianna Santero 7. Paternal Leave and Part-Time Work in Austria: Rearranging Family Life; Gerlinde Mauerer 8. "Involved" Fathers, "Ideal" Workers? Fathers' Work-Family Experiences in the U.S.; Krista M. BrumleyPart III: Changing Fatherhood, Changing Policies? 9. Culture, Policies and Practices on Fathers' Work and Childcare in Japan: A New Departure from old Persistence; Hideki Nakazato 10. Policies Promoting Active Fatherhood in Five Nordic Countries; Guðný Björk Eydal and Tine Rostgaard Concluding Remarks, Caring Fathers' Entanglement in the Nexus of Cultures, Practices and Policies; Rosy Musumeci and Arianna Santero

Social scientists from Europe, the US, and Mexico provide 10 chapters examining how fathers achieve and represent their gendered work-care balance and how national policies, enterprises, and experts provide resources, constraints, expectations, and social norms shaping fathers' practices. They consider how fathers fulfill their roles in the family and at the workplace, what kind of support they receive, and the role played by cultures at the company and expert levels in shaping ideas of "good" fatherhood and fathering. They describe men's experiences of fatherhood and reconciliation between paid work and childcare, including the relationship between prenatal anticipation and the development of positive parental involvement in Spain, what happens when partners have different attitudes on gender divisions of paid and unpaid work in Italy, differences in time spent on child raising between rural and urban fathers in Mexico, and the participation of fathers in childcare and the perception of the role of fathers by men and women in the Czech Republic. They then discuss the role of work organizations and infant experts in influencing fathers' experiences of childcare and work-family balance, including how fathers are supported or hindered in attaining work-life balance in Spain, the influence of infancy experts and workplace cultures on work-childcare reconciliation practices among native and immigrant fathers in Italy, paternal leave practices and fathers' family involvement in Austria, and the relationship between fathers' perceptions of the workplace and how they enact fatherhood in the US, ending with examination of policies supporting the involvement of working fathers in childcare in Japan and Nordic countries.