The editors place research about men's involvement in care work in the broader context of gender, welfare system and social policy studies as well as in the sociology of work. The main theoretical approaches in researching the gender division of care are presented, with a special consideration of the male perspective as conceptualised in critical studies of men and masculinities. The discussed topical reflections and empirical evidence concerning men’s inclusion in formal and informal care work in Europe reveal that men’s increasing share of care may be seen as a counterpart to the traditional concepts of male power and hegemonic masculinities and that men’s caring involvement entails a lot of complexity and identity negotiations. The authors also reflect on the issue of men in care in the neoliberal context of changes to both the labour market and masculinity, while discussing its transformative potential.
C.03 Guest-associated editor
Initiatives for gender untypical vocational choices have primarily encouraged girls to enter male dominated fields of work, while projects to support boys in untypical vocational pathways are rare. The under-representation of boys is in particular obvious in professional care education including health care, elder care, early childhood education, primary school teaching where the majority of EU countries having less than 15% of their care work undertaken by men and facing a cultural ascription of care work as an extension of women’s ‘natural’ function in the family. From this perspective, professional care represents an unexplored arena for gender desegregation of educational and vocational choices, for fostering caring masculinities and challenging rigid gender norms. BiC aims at explicitly naming boys as driving force and target group in further desegregation of educational and vocational choices with a focus on care professions by developing, implementing and disseminating educational and counselling tools and mechanisms for teachers and vocational counsellors to be able to support boys in their untypical vocational choices.
D.06 Final report on a foreign/international project
COBISS.SI-ID: 1241453Since 2020 has been dr. Majda Hrženjak, a project leader, member of international board of the Men and Masculinities journal
C.06 Editorial board membership
COBISS.SI-ID: 518306585The lecture critically reflects on the idea of motherly love found in the works of Fromm, Parsons and Bales and empirically examines how lone fathers understand this idea and how it is embedded in the actions of public institutions. Evidence from interviews show that lone fathers perceive motherly love as the only deficit in their care for their children. While through their day-to-day care they intentionally or unintentionally deconstruct gender norms and the boundaries of masculinity, they simultaneously restore them at the level of a less tangible emotional experience. The idea of motherly love being reproduced on the institutional level leads to discrimination against (lone) fathers and the marginalisation of atypical masculinities.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 1305453