A Challenge for Fathers, a Challenge for Social Policy? Shifts and Continuities of Fatherhood in the Poland's Transition 1989-2013

This paper discusses the relationships between social representations (Moscovici 1961) of fatherhood, social policies and social practices in the period 1989-2013 in Poland. It investigates how shifts and continuities of social policies affect configurations of fatherhood. The analysis considers cultural, institutional (laws, regulations, organizations) and societal dimensions of fatherhood. The main hypothesis states that the institutional order shapes the social representations of fatherhood and simultaneously the cultural images of fatherhood define the patterns of social policy reforms and block radical changes as well as create the realities of fatherhood.

The institutional context of the welfare regime in Poland is often characterized through the strong familiarism and maternalism. The poor access to institutional care (app. 2-4 % of children 0-3 y/o in institutional care) and the commodification of labor “strengthen” care function of families. This promotes male or dual breadwinner family model with a limited involvement of fathers in childcare and domestic work.

The 2013 leave entitlements’ reform in Poland can be considered as a historical transition from familiarism implicite to familiarism explicite (Leitner 2003). An entitlement to 26 weeks of parental leave was introduced as a supplement to 26 weeks of maternity leave. However, the recent reform confirmed a strong link between the cultural images of fatherhood, the political agenda and the results of reforms. The rejection of father’s quota also revealed durability of the regulations that reproduce gender inequalities in care-giving and domestic work. Basing on evidence from other countries with similar constructions of leave entitlements it can be assumed that in Poland parental leaves will be used almost entirely by women. This assumption is further confirmed by a limited take-up level of 2-week paternity leaves.

Legal acts, media and parliamentary debates, existing literature and qualitative data (IDI with fathers) serve as empirical material for this paper.