Project Paternity Leave. Taking ownership to fathering

Twenty-two years have passed since the "father`s quota” in 1993 was supplemented as a part of the Norwegian paid parental leave scheme exclusively reserved for the father. This is a relatively new situation as men traditionally have not recently been associated with the role as main carers for young children. This thesis aims to explore fathers` experiences of being in paternity leave and how they shape this time together with their child. Expectations and understandings of what it means to be in paternity leave play a role in how the fathers construct, coordinate and experience their leave projects. Influenced by ethnography this study focus on fathering practices from fathers` perspectives through logbooks, interviews and daddy blogs. With point of departure from social constructivism, drawing on social studies of children and childhoods and gender studies, this study aim to give a qualitative analysis of the on-going processes within a group readily associated with the paternal leave model as they form their fatherhoods on paternity leave. The study does not take measure of the care these father´s exercise, but rather explores how these fathers´ understandings of children, childhoods and fatherhoods shape their intentions of the paternity leave and on how they perform fatherhood. Keywords: care-practices, fathers, fathering, paternity leave, rationality of care, social constructivism