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Author Meets Critics: "Fathers on Leave Alone" Edited By Margaret O’Brien and Karin Wall & "Fathering, Masculinity and the Embodiment of Care" By Gillian Ranson

Sunday, 10 July 2016: 14:15-15:45
Location: Hörsaal 41 (Main Building)
RC06 Family Research (host committee)

Language: English

I. Fathers on Leave Alone: Comparative Perspectives on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality Published by Springer 2016

Margaret O’Brien and Karin Wall (Editors)

Throughout most of the post-war 20th century, entitlement to parental leave was only for mothers. Paternity leave and parental targeted at fathers has gradually become more common place across the world. This book presents new insights into the experiences of fathers taking “home alone leave” in different country policy contexts.

The session will include presentations from the editors and authors from diverse countries across Europe, North America and Japan.

The Ethics of Care and the Radical Potential of Fathers ‘Home Alone on Leave’: Care as Practice, Relational Ontology, and Social Justice

Andrea Doucet

Fathering Alone in Norway: Changes and Continuities

Elin Kvande and Berit Brandth

Fathers on Leave Alone in Portugal: Lived experiences, Diversity and Impact

Karin Wall and Mafalda Leitão

Fathers and Parental/Paternity Leave: the Case of Innovative, Subversive and Activist Fathers in Québec!

Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay and Nadia Lazzari Dodeler

Fathers on Leave Alone in Finland: Negotiations and Lived Experiences

Johanna Lammi-Taskula

Fathers on Leave Alone in Spain

Gerardo Meil, Pedro Romero-Balsas and Jesús Rogero-García

Toward More Equal Parenthood? Swedish Fathers’ Experiences of Parental Leave

Ann-Zofie Duvander, Linda Haas and Sara Thalberg

Normal Paternal Behaviour? Fatherhood and Parental Leave in Iceland

Ingólfur V. Gíslason

Fathers Taking Leave Alone in the UK - a Gift Exchange between Mother and Father?

Margaret O’Brien and Katherine Twamley

Fathers and Part-time Parental Leave in France – a Shift towards an Egalitarian

Model?

Danielle Boyer

Fathers on Leave Alone in Switzerland: Agents of Social Change?

Isabel Valarino

Fathers on Leave Alone in Japan: Lived Experiences of the Pioneers

Hideki Nakazato


II. Fathering, Masculinity and the Embodiment of Care by Gillian Ranson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

In this session, Gillian will describe some of the research findings contained in her book. The book’s focus is on fathers caring for babies and young children, and draws on observations of fathers currently at home on parental leave, and interviews with fathers who had taken parental leave in the past. It also includes analysis of fathers’ memoirs, and fathers’ online blogs. From accounts of all these fathers – a total of 62 from Canada, the US, the UK and Australia – the author explores the embodiment of care as fathers experience it. A core finding is that direct, hands-on care of their children is transformative for the fathers who undertake it. They become deeply attached to the children for whom they are caring, and committed to engaged involvement in family life over the long haul. They also challenge many stereotypes about men and masculinity as they become competent in a new kind of embodied practice.


Session Organizer:
Margaret O'BRIEN, University College London, United Kingdom
Chair:
Ria SMIT, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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