Fathers' time with children at the crossroads of the gender revolution: a comparative analysis in France, Italy, Sweden and the UK

According to recent literature the increasing women’s labour market participation is only the first part of the so called gender revolution, while a second part is now unfolding, with an increased participation of men in family life with special attention to childcare. The aim of this paper is to explore fathers’ involvement in parenting tasks within different contexts in terms of gender regimes, family policies, and workplace culture. The idea is to evidence individual factors that may enable/challenge the capability of fathers to stay with children and care for them, and to suggest opportune father-friendly policies. Time with children is compared among a sample of fathers in Time Use survey in France (2009-2010), Italy (2008-09), Sweden (2000-2001) and the UK (2000). Three different measures of father involvement are examined: the total time father spend with their children, the time they spend alone with them, and their engagement in childcare activities. Results show that distinct micro-level factors contribute in determining the three levels of father’s commitment analysed. Few cross-countries differences emerge. Fathers’ involvement is mainly determined by their work-related features, by their children characteristics, and by their partner’s working schedules. Weekday and weekend differences are observed. The quantum of father engagement strongly depends on the countries’ institutional context: it is the highest in Sweden and the lowest in Italy. Fathers’ time with children at the crossroads of the gender revolution: 3 a comparative analysis in France, Italy, Sweden and the UK Acknowledgement: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 320116 for the research project FamiliesAndSocieties. This comparative study shows the methodological importance of considering different measures of father involvement to understand how micro-level factors influence the time fathers spend with their children in different institutional context.