Webinar to shed light on Caregiving Dads and Breadwinning Mums

The findings of the ‘Caregiving dads, breadwinning mums: Transforming gender in work and childcare’ project will be launched at a lunchtime webinar on Tuesday 13 September.

The webinar, taking place between 12:30pm and 2pm, is hosted by the Women’s Budget Group and will include a discussion with parental news site Mother Pukka and the Fatherhood Institute about how parental leave policies unevenly distribute childcare responsibilities and what this means for parents.

‘Caregiving dads, breadwinning mums: Transforming gender in work and childcare’, a major mixed-methods study funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted by experts at the University of Lincoln, UK, compared couples in which childcare responsibilities are shared equally, or assumed primarily by the father, with more traditional arrangements.

The project found that modern parents want to do things differently, but parental leave policies make it hard to share care.

Professor Ruth Gaunt from the Research Team at The University of Lincoln said:

“Current parenting leave policies restrict couples’ choices and steer them into a traditional division of family roles despite their beliefs, preferences, and parenting arrangements. 

“Parents want to see more part-time and flexible working and leave policies and childcare that enable both parents to return to work after parenting leave.” 

Drawing on survey data from a nationally representative sample of British parents, as well as in-depth interviews with couples with young children, the study found that:

• Both fathers and mothers in all the parenting arrangements researched want to spend time with their children and be closely involved in their lives.

• Most couples feel forced to identify a main carer with reduced involvement in paid work, and a main breadwinner with reduced involvement in childcare.

• Couples who shared care and paid work equally had higher levels of satisfaction (with mothers in these arrangements particularly satisfied).

• Mothers in traditional arrangements reported lower wellbeing, relationship quality and self-esteem.

• Both men and women who were the main breadwinners tended more than others to feel they had been forced into their role.

The study was conducted by Prof Ruth Gaunt, Dr Ana Jordan, Prof Anna Tarrant, Nicola Chanamuto, Dr Mariana Pinho, University of Lincoln (UK), Dr Agata Wezyk, Bournemouth University (UK) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

You can find out more and join the webinar here.

Download the full report here.