Slovenia has dual-earner model from the Second World War on with full time employment of women and men supported by the family policy of gender neutral parental leave and accessible, subsidized public child care services. The state upgraded the parental leave scheme with paternity leave in 2003 aiming to foster caring role of fathers. However, the precarisation, the intensification and flexibilisation of work in Slovenia result in that almost three thirds of first jobs for young people are atypical, precarious forms of employment. The neoliberal market based on the concept of »ideal worker« unburdened with care and family obligations, deriving from traditional gender role division represent one of the key factors affecting the involvement of fathers in care for children. The greater shifts toward caring fatherhood and variations of relations between paid work and fathering can be observed by fathers in precarious employments. Fathers in managerial positions with full power to development of work – family reconciliation mechanisms, express prevailing hegemonic masculinity with limited participation in care for children fulfilled in »weekend fatherhood«.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1224045In our talk, we give an overview of paternity as cultural representation and of discussions about paternal identity related to masculinity. We emphasize that paternity practices and (dominant) images are shaped by "socio-economically real gender-specific division of labour" (Hausen 1975), which can be found in a society. This means that in their everyday practices people always have to deal with the requirements of gender norms, the contradictions of these norms and socio-economic constraints, and have to do justice to these - often contradictory ideas - in their own reality. These factors decisively shape practices of fatherhood and motherhood, often distinguishing them from their powerful representations.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 1215597