Gender Equality and Men

To further my research and advocacy for Gender Equality I took a look at two peer-reviewed articles. These articles were about husbands and fathers and the role they play in Gender Equality in their household and relationships. Both articles were written in Scandinavian countries and observations and interviews were conducted with Scandinavian couples.

The first article I read was “How men became the local agents of change towards genderequality.”  This was a peer-review article on a follow up study of a study done in the 1970’s. The original study was done in Norway featuring 16 middle class couples.  The study was carried out between 69 and 75. “The original project was an action research project to promote gender equality in families, and was based on both spouses working part-time and sharing childcare and household work.” (Bjornholt, 4)  

For this study the men and women had to agree to take a part-time job. They either had different part-time jobs at the same company or they shared the same job equally. This gave the participants work time and leisure time.  

Over the 6 year span study the couple had their lives documented. The findings of the original study were aired in a T.V. program. This was done to try and make others aware of and promote the “Male-Feminist.” This was said to be a trend after the women’s movement. 

The original study found;

·         A work/family arrangement corresponded to the sharing of domestic work and childcare

·         Couples reported higher levels of gender equality

·         Couples reported higher levels of sexual relations

·         Couples had less stress and more power relations

·         Childcare was more equally shared that housework

·         House work was still gendered.

For the follow up study conducted in 2011, 14 of the original couples were interviewed. 11 of the couples were still married and the divorced couples were interviewed separately from the others.  The follow up study looked into why these men were able to live non-traditional lives (traditional meaning; the man spends little time at home and on household responsibilities while the woman stay at home to take care of the household responsibilities.)

Their interviews focused on the following areas;

·         Perspectives on childhood loss

·         Perspectives on strong, working mothers

·         Perspectives on domestic skills

·         Perspectives on self-confidence and caring

·         Perspectives on fostering wives’ personal and professional growth

·         Perspectives on relationships with children as a motivational factor

·         Perspectives on leisure as a motivational factor

They found from their interviews was that these husbands were influenced but childhood loss and powerful mothers. Some of the men had to take over more feminine roles as children which influenced how they acted in the future. This changed their perceptions on domestic skills and work. Self-confidence and caring was shown through the husband initiative to get him and his spouse involved in the study. They concluded that these actions showed caring because they had the best interest of their wives and they were confident enough in their self to take that step and make the decision for the both of them. This caring also crossed over with their want for their wives to grow professionally. The follow up study revealed that fathers wanted to be just as involved in their child’s life as a mother. This was due to several factors but one of them accounted for by one of the participants was because that “it was sad about fathers who just fell into the role and did not have as strong contact with their children as the mothers.” (Bjornholt, 13) It was also found that increased leisure was a separate motivation of most men.

The second article I read was, “Changes in gender equality? Swedish fathers’ parental leave, division of childcare and housework.” This article featured a 2014 study done on the parental leave of fathers in Sweden.  In Sweden men are given several months of “non-transferable” parental leave after a child is born (Almqvist and Duvander, 1-2).  

Today men are given 16 months of parental leave and 9 out of 10 fathers will use a portion of their leave. Based on the previous research fathers that use their leave are usually “employed in the public sector, in female dominated work places.” (Almqvist and Duvander, 2) They found that those fathers who use parental leave will have a stronger father-child relationship.

                For the study they compared fathers who used 2 months or less of leave and those who used more than 2 months. What they found was that those fathers that took a long leave were more likely to;

·         Stay at home with a sick child

·         To be in touch with the school or daycare

·         Take children to leisure activities

·         Put the children to bed

·         Buy and mend children’s clothes

What also influenced these findings were the previous beliefs of the husband and wife in child rearing. In conclusion those fathers who believed in sharing duties before having a child were more likely to do so. It also found that those fathers who take longer parental leave will be more likely to believe in gender equality in housework and child rearing.

It was interesting to compare these two articles because they are very different studies but they showed the same findings. They were different because both had a different topic in which they were researching. They also used different methods. What they found to be the same is that fathers want to be involved and that there is a new wave of men who want participate in gender equality within child rearing and domestic work.  

I also found it interesting that both of these studies were done in Scandinavian countries. I would like to do more research to see if there have been similar studies done in other regions of the world and how results change according to those being evaluated.  

Now I would like to hear what your thoughts are on the article! Comment below with how you thought the two were similar or dissimilar and how you would think these studies would turn out if they were conducted in America.

XOXO Kourtney