Federal Institute for Population Research

Edited Volume “New Parents in Europe” • 30.07.2019How Can ‘Deviant’ Work-Care Plans Be Realised after Childbirth?

A new contribution by Anna Dechant from the BiB and Annika Rinklake (ifb) deals with the question of how non-normative work-care plans can be realised after childbirth. For this purpose, they draw on qualitative interviews of 14 western German couples who did not plan to follow the ‘traditional’ work-care division.

Abstract

In this chapter, we draw on reports of western German couples who did not plan to follow the dominant normative expectations of gendered separate spheres and analyse their experiences as new parents during the first year after childbirth. Eight out of fourteen couples interviewed in 2006 and 2007 planned and realised non-normative divisions of work and care as the mother was active in the labour market, the father reduced his paid working hours for childcare, and/or non-family members were involved in childcare. The couples discussed several aspects that were important for planning and achieving a non-normative work-care arrangement such as the mothers’ strong work identity, ideals of gender equity, financial reasons, and occupational conditions like support at the workplace. Overall, it was mostly the mothers who did not follow normative expectations of full-time maternal childcare while most fathers did not challenge the male breadwinner norm.

Anna Dechant, Annika Rinklake (2019):
Working and Caring: German Couples’ Realizations of Non-normative Work-Care Plans.
In: Daniela Grunow, Marie Evertsson (eds.): New Parents in Europe. Work-Care Practices, Gender Norms and Family Policies.
Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing: 87–107

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