“IT’S A TRIANGLE THAT’S DIFFICULT TO SQUARE”: MEN’S INTENTIONS AND PRACTICES AROUND CARING, WORK AND FIRST-TIME FATHERHOOD

This paper reports the findings of a small scale, UK based, qualitative longitudinal study on men’s experiences of transition to first-time fatherhood. The study commenced in 2005, two years after paid paternity leave was introduced in the UK and explores how men’s intentions around fathering involvement are imagined and shaped in prenatal interviews. Subsequent interviews following the birth explore how prenatal intentions are actually practiced. The introduction of paternity leave in the UK heralds the possibility of father involvement in more than just instrumental ways and these are realised through caring involvement across the men’s accounts. But the statutory two weeks of paternity leave is soon over and a return to paid work signals a “domino-effect” of gendered practises to unfold as the uneasy relationship between paid work and family life is negotiated. The findings illuminate men’s capacities to care in circumstances that can mitigate against their longer term—and more equal—involvement.