Negotiating Fathers’ Care: Canadian Fathers’ Leave-taking as Conformity and Change

Despite some changes to the ways contemporary families are handling the allocation of paid and unpaid work, the path of least resistance still tends be maternal caregiving with mothers more likely than fathers to cut back on their employment or drop out of the workforce entirely. Because men typically maintain, and may even strengthen, their ties to the labour market at the transition to parenthood, offering them paid parental leave is thought to provide an important opportunity for fathers to develop the skills and sense of responsibility that are characteristic of mothers’ parenting, ultimately reducing gender inequality in families. Although leave schemes that specifically target fathers are praised for their high usage rates, there has been little research into the quality of men’s time at home. This dissertation addresses this gap in the literature by probing the time-bounded and gender-laden circumstances of early parenthood to consider the ways in which fathers’ early involvement might set the stage for their greater participation in domestic life. I do so by examining how Canadian fathers come to use, experience, and act in response to their time on parental leave. The men in this study waxed enthusiastically about the parenting skills and emotional bonds they developed while on leave. Many were so moved by the experience that they came to incorporate the values and practices of care into their identities. Yet at the same time, the allocation of leave time and couple’s subsequent divisions of housework and domestic responsibility remained gendered. Couples had to engage with gendered cultural expectations that took men’s employment for granted but allowed them greater leeway than women when it came to meeting parenting standards. Nevertheless, I argue that the transformative potential of fathers’ leave-taking should not be dismissed – even small changes to couples’ gendered roles and fathers’ identities are important in undoing gender inequality.Ph.D