Mäns kompensatoriska beteende i hushållsarbetet : En kvalitativ studie gjord på män med familj som i sitt arbete veckopendlar

The study is a qualitative study conducted via telephone interviews where the material has been transcribed and processed with qualitative text analysis and presented under themes and analyzed based on Butler's (2005) theory of the heterosexual matrix, Connell & Pearse (2017), social embodiment and gender domain and Gorman-Murray (2008) masculinity and previous research. The topic of gender with the home as the focus is a current topic and in this study we interviewed eight men between 28-40 years who work in a craft profession far from home, i.e. every week commuters who live with a woman and have children under 18 years. The purpose of the study was to investigate how these men relate to their efforts in household work. In addition, we have examined which factors may influence their participation in household work from a gender perspective. The study shows that men have a "compensatory behavior" when it comes to their participation in household work. This compensatory behavior is shown when most of the men in our study respond that they do more household tasks on the weekend to compensate for them being away at work. Furthermore, the study shows an ambivalence as the men reflect during the interview that the women still do more housework. The compensatory behavior is shown to decrease when the men are at home for longer periods of time, which corresponds to figures regarding the breakdown in time when it comes to household work (Statistiska centralbyrån [SCB] 2018). The study also shows that home is the woman's domain where gender roles are reproduced and where masculinity is an important aspect. Men are affected both at home and at work by various masculinity schemes (Gorman-Murray 2008). Through social embodiment, men and their partners are in a gender domain, that is, the entire social life that is socially linked to the reproductive arena where through their actions they are active agents and objects in the participation and reproduction of male and female (Connel & Pearse 2017) . Linked to Butler's (2005) heterosexual matrix, the study shows, from a gender perspective, that men can be influenced during their upbringing as well as in current social structures based on norms and values that reproduce what is female and male and that are seen as normal when it comes to housework. Butler's heterosexual matrix illustrates, on a more abstract level, what is considered normal and not normal with regard to men's participation in household work, which indicates that gender is polar, clear and delimited (Butler 2005). During longer periods of time, we see a decrease in compensatory behaviour, which can then affect a viscous change in terms of a more equal distribution of domestic work.2020-06-03