Stay-at-home mothers often boast
their job is all work and no play, while working mothers tend to claim they do
more work than their unemployed counterparts.
Yet regardless of the mother’s role within a family, it is generally acceptable
for the father to dedicate more hours than not to his role as a financial
provider. Working fathers are at a distinct disadvantage because they do not
experience the same flexibility, perks, and accommodations as working mothers. The tendency for family policies to more
often benefit women contributes to a disparity between the amount of time men
and women devote to childcare responsibilities.
Such trends perpetuate the norm that women are responsible for the brunt
of caretaking responsibilities, crystalize the tendency for men to occupy
traditional gender roles, and effect quality of life for the family overall.
In the1960s only 1% of fathers were
actively involved in childcare responsibilities. Since then men have become significantly more
active in fatherhood roles (Haas & Hwang, 2008). They continue to place a strong degree of
importance on occupying the role of a provider, but have been found to gain
more satisfaction from family roles over career (Burnett, Gatrell, Cooper,
& Sparrow, 2013). An emphasis on family values, in conjunction with women’s
primary role no longer being limited to childrearing and homemaking, has led
men to be increasingly acknowledged in their roles as fathers (McLaughlin &
Muldoon, 2014). Despite this, men are
simply not granted the same opportunities as women when it comes to workplace family
policies.
In some cases, women experience the
benefits of policies geared toward family that include flex-time, maternity
leave, or the ability to work from home, making work-life balance more
achievable. Yet as the workforce became
more sensitive to the needs of working mothers it largely ignored those of
working fathers (Burnett, Gatrell, Cooper, & Sparrow, 2013). While women continue to experience gender
inequality within the workforce, men rarely benefit from workplace family
policies. This disparity contributes to
women remaining the primary caretaker and most often the partner to forego a
career. Of equal importance is the implicit
acceptance that men dedicate more time to work than family (Levey, 2013), with over
a third of working men spending over forty hours a week on the job (McLaughlin
& Muldoon, 2014). Not only can women become burnt out on dedicating most of
their waking hours to the home, but men’s quality of life and relationships
within the family can diminish as well.
Working fathers may be aware of
family policies and feel they could benefit from them, but there is a passive
assumption that the policies are in place for women. Additionally, men’s need for work-life
balance can be largely ignored. This is
reflected in employers implicitly discouraging men from taking advantage of
family policies or reacting differently to male requests for similar accommodations
as working mothers (McLaughlin & Muldoon, 2014). Not only may a man’s
request be met with disapproval, he may even be perceived as engaging in
excuse-making or dishonesty. When not requesting flexibility or accommodations,
men are simply not offered the same benefits as women. Ultimately, both
employees and employers to fail to even explore the possibility of men taking
advantage of family policies. This intensifies
the existing belief that family policies are in place for women, further discouraging
men from seeking out the same benefits.
The blatant disregard of
accommodating the needs of working fathers impacts the entire family. When fathers work long hours it effects
relationships with children. Mothers
develop stronger bonds with children not only as the child bearer, but as the
parent who simply ends up spending more time with the child (Haas & Hwang,
2008). Men experience incessant pressure
to take on as much work as possible to maintain financial stability, which not
only causes the father to dedicate less time to his fatherhood role, but can
influence the quality of the relationship with his partner. Furthermore, high
demands on either partner can cause mental, emotional, or physical strain. In
many cases, the man a father wants to be is simply not reflected in his
lifestyle.
Fathers who take advantage of family
policies, such as paternity leave, may experience many benefits, which in turn
creates positive effects for women and children. Men who dedicate more time to childcare display
greater satisfaction within the fatherhood role, and greater father
participation in caretaking can improve the quality of interactions with children
and ultimately improve the father-child relationship (Haas & Hwang, 2008). These benefits ultimately increase quality of
life for both parent and child. Women also
benefit by being relieved of caretaking responsibilities, which allows them to
explore other opportunities. The benefits of men taking advantage of family
policies has been observed in workplaces that either require men to take
advantage of family policies or foster a culture in which there is a greater
awareness that the policies exist for men. Various methods of generating
greater father participation in workplace policies geared toward the family may
increase the number of men who take advantage of such policies. One suggestion is for employers to utilize a fatherhood
or motherhood passport that would detail the parental status of employees (Burnett,
Gatrell, Cooper, & Sparrow, 2013). Identifying parent status would serve as
a method of promoting an awareness that male employees occupy fatherhood roles.
This would in turn normalize the perception of employees as fathers. Normalizing fatherhood within the workplace
may eventually reduce resistance to requests for taking advantage of family policies.
As a result, men and children will experience stronger relationships and women may
experience more flexibility if they prefer it.
As men become more able to achieve work-life balance the quality of life
for fathers, mothers, and children may be expected to improve.
Written by: Aimee M. Poleski
References
Burnett, S. B., Gatrell, C. J., Cooper, C., & Sparrow, P.
(2013). Fathers at work: A ghost in the organizational machine. Gender,
Work & Organization, 20(6), 632-646.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2008). The impact of taking
parental leave on fathers’ participation
in childcare and relationships with children: Lessons from Sweden. Community, Work and Family, 11(1),
85-104.
McLaughlin, K., & Muldoon, O. (2014). Father identity,
involvement and work–family balance:
An in‐depth interview study. Journal of Community & Applied
Social Psychology, 24(5),
439-452.
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