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“At the End, the Father Works More and the Mother Stays Home”: Polish and Swedish Fathers and (Un)achieved Work-Life Balance

  • Katarzyna Suwada
Chapter
Part of the Global Masculinities book series (GLMAS)

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyze how the issue of work-life balance looks like from the perspective of men in Poland and Sweden. I assume that the differences between men and women in experiencing conflicting obligations arising from family life and the labor market—so-called combination pressures—result from different attitudes of men and women to paid work, housework, and care work. Despite the changing gender roles men concentrate more on paid work and less overtly experience the combination pressures than women. This greater focus on paid work is connected to traditional parental roles and gender beliefs. Yet also the family policy system has an impact on how men experience combination pressures.

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© Katarzyna Suwada 2016

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