It takes two to be equal? Middle-class men managing care and work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

• Authors: Ewelina Ciaputa , Marta Warat , Ewa Krzaklewska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to the organisation of work and practices of care. Lockdown, the introduction of remote working in many sectors, homeschooling, and social isolation required the adoption of new strategies and solutions, resulting in the increased involvement of mothers in caring activities and the reinforcement of the cultural normativity of family. Yet some studies suggest that the share of fathers in childcare has also increased. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted as part of the ‘Men in Care’ (MiC) project with men working in international corporations (17) and their partners (7), we consider how the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland impacted men’s approach to care and parental roles. We draw on the experiences of male employees and their partners to show how the ‘interweaving’ of care and work has influenced the involvement of fathers and the division of care between partners. We examine whether the post-outbreak months, when care duties suddenly became delegated almost exclusively to parents, triggered reflections in relation to caring masculinities and challenged existing gender relations. We identified three types of fathers in our sample: task-oriented fathers, supportive fathers, and engaged fathers.

Keywords

EN

fatherhood; caring (masculinities); organisation; COVID-19 pandemic

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 62-86
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Ewelina Ciaputa

• Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. / Institute of Sociology CAS, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Marta Warat

• Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. / Institute of Sociology CAS, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Ewa Krzaklewska

• Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. / Institute of Sociology CAS, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic