Intergenerational norms and work-care ambition for (Dutch) fathers
Presented by Assistant Professor Stéfanie André
During the last decades, care work of fathers received an upsurge of scholarly attention within family studies. Especially after the European Union made extended paternity leave and paid parental leave obligatory in all EU countries. In this seminar I would like to do three things. First, present a theoretical model based on an extensive literature review of 113 studies done between 2003 and 2023. Second, present the results from our paired in-depth interviews with Dutch fathers and their adult sons. Third, I would like to present the very preliminary results of the development of a new work-care and care ambition scale. These studies are part of my research project ‘How fathers combine work and care’ funded by the Dutch Research Council.
The Dutch policy to facilitate work-care equality is relatively new and not all fathers use it. To better understand the discrepancy between work-care attitudes and work-care behaviour vis-a-vis family policy, we focus on the question who adult sons see as ‘role models’ in their work-care attitudes and behaviour. Fathers and their adult sons in the Netherlands (N=32) were paired depth interviewed about how their work-care attitudes and behaviour are passed down across generations, and how they are influenced by their environment. Three main themes emerged from our data: role modelling as indecisive; role modelling as fragmented, and the importance of evolved and changing contexts. Fathers draw from a palette of ‘fragmented role models’ in order to construct their work-care behaviour in accordance with what is (or was) feasible for them and their social environment at a given moment in time.
Based on the qualitative interviews I also developed a work-care ambition and care-ambition scale that have just been launched in the Dutch LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences). I would like to present the first results about the validity and reliability of these scales and discuss the cross-cultural applicability that these scales could have.
About the Speaker
Stéfanie André is a policy sociologist working as an assistant professor of Public Administration at Radboud University (the Netherlands). Currently, she works with a Dutch NWO-VENI Talent Grant (2022-2026) on the project ‘Fathers combining work and care’ on how organizational and national structures influence fathers’ work-care attitudes and work-care behaviour. With Nola Cammu she works on the intergenerational transmission of work-care attitudes and behaviour, funded by an NWO-XS grant. She is co-leader of the Radboud WORKLIFE consortium, bringing together interdisciplinary research and teaching on work-life balance. She is also part of the COGIS-NL research team, lead by professor Mara Yerkes, that investigated the short- and long-term consequences of Covid-19 on gender inequality in the Netherlands (2020-2024).
