A Permanent or Temporary Change? The Arrangement of Gender Roles in Families with Caring Fathers

1 Abstract: In her dissertation thesis, the author concentrates on the phenomenon of 'caring fathers'. Her primary goal was not to explicate the transformations of fatherhood but to explore whether direct and daylong childcare provided by the father leads to the elimination of gender inequalities in the family during the period when the father is involved in childcare as the primary care provider or co-provider as well as during the immediately following period when he returns to the labour market. This issue is a less explored one in Czech sociology and related sciences than the first topic even as fathers' participation in childcare and child education is considered to be one of the ways to challenge cultural and social inequalities between genders. In her work the author aims to answer the question whether in families where fathers are involved in childcare in the early stages of the child's life, gender inequalities in the family are disrupted or whether this situation constitutions a mere modification of the status quo. She asks when gender equality in families occurs (or can occur) and what the relationship is between gender equality in the family and gender inequality in larger society. The study is based on a specifically designed qualitative research study carried out in 2006 and in 2009 through..