EOC Fathers: balancing work and family - The Fatherhood Institute

RESEARCHfindingsFathers:balancing work and familyBoth research and policy on balancing work and family life have tended to focus onmothers’ lives. As a result, men’s fathering roles have often been neglected. Two EOCresearch studies explore how fathers fulfil their roles both within the family and atwork and what support could be of most benefit to them in combining these roles.Key Findings■ The breadwinning role remains crucial for many fathers. Many also emphasise‘being there’ for their children and aspirations for more involved fatherhoodare high.■ Most fathers play a support role within the family - they often have minimalinvolvement with their children during the week but put weekends aside forfamily life.■ Some fathers’ support role is extensive. About one-third of active parentalchildcare is already carried out by fathers.■ The gap in pay between men’s and women’s wages and the high cost of childcareare among the factors affecting fathers' level of involvement.■ Fathers are more involved in childcare when their partner has a relatively highincome and is working full-time.■ Fathers often regard balancing family and work as a personal responsibility anduse informal arrangements with managers.■ Fathers’ expectations and use of specific family-friendly policies and practices arelow despite high demand from parents for an improved balance between workand family.■ Eight out of ten employers believe that family-friendly policies improve therecruitment and retention of staff, despite mixed messages on the overallcost benefits.■ Fathers’ take-up of parental leave is encouragedby individual entitlement, flexibility betweenpartners, awareness campaigns and,crucially, high compensation forlost wages.

Fathers: balancing work and familyBackgroundThese findings summarise the key points fromtwo EOC reports.■ Working Fathers: earning and caringreviews recent literature on fathers inemployment, focusing on their ability tobalance work with family life and the rolethey play within the family. It also reportson a secondary analysis of the DfEE 2000Work-Life Balance 2000 1 (WLB2000)datasets exploring the provision, demandand uptake of family-friendly employmentpractices among fathers.■ In contrast, Dads on Dads: needs andexpectations at home and at work describes aqualitative study which interviewed fathers,their partners and human resources staffto explore fathers’ attitudes towards, andexperiences of, being a working father. Allquotes from parents are from this study.FatherhoodFathers are more likely to be economicallyactive and in full-time employment than menwithout children. The vast majority of fatherswork full-time (86 per cent). Between 1998and 2001 there was a small increase in theproportion of mothers working full-time(from 29 to 31 per cent) whereas part-timeworking remained static. This suggests aperiod of work intensification for parents.The proportion of lone fathers and mothersin full-time employment also increased duringthat period. The volume of paid workundertaken by fathers remains two-thirdshigher than that undertaken by mothers.Fathers are not a homogeneous group andthere is a wide variety in the roles they adopt.A number of studies emphasise the importanceof the breadwinner role as a powerful sourceof identity for fathers and many cite this role astheir main family commitment. Studies showthat their earnings are positively associatedwith children’s educational attainment andpsychological well-being while being a providerfor the family gives fathers a clearly definedrole. As one father put it:“Well, the only one [commitment] I cansee is basically keeping them fed, a houseover their heads.”At the same time, comparative studies indicatethat there is a greater acceptance of lesstraditional gender roles in Britain thanelsewhere, strongest in relation to women’sroles. Both reports found that younger men, inparticular, have expressed a wish to participatemore fully in family life, and there are somefathers for whom the breadwinning role hasless relevance, especially those whose partneris also working full-time:“Personally I wouldn’t have any hesitationin a kind of stereotypical role reversal ifyou like, where she went out to work andI looked after the kids…I’m sure they’ddrive me up the wall from time to time aswell, but equally they do with my wife,so I can’t see that as being any different,really I can’t.”So fatherhood is in a state of change. Theeveryday, traditional role of providingeconomic support for the family now takesplace alongside activities previously regardedas maternal, so that ‘negotiating tradition andchange is at the heart of contemporaryfatherhood’.Another aspect of fatherhood is providingpsychological support - ‘being there’ for thechildren. This can mean many different things –physically being around the home as much aspossible given the constraints of work, but alsospending ‘quality time’ with the children:“Being available when they need it, beinga good role model, being their mate,empathising with them, facilitating themto develop and learn…Being around andbeing part of their lives really.”Studies suggest that the gender of the parentis less important for child development thanbroader parenting style. Early fatherinvolvement with a child is associated withcontinuing involvement with that childthroughout childhood and adolescence. Fornon-resident fathers, parenting style is a moreimportant predictor of good child outcomesthan frequency of visits.1 Available from the ESRC Data Archive, University of Essex.2

RESEARCHfindingsFathers in the ‘support’ roleIn 2001, fathers worked an average of 46 hoursper week with nearly 40 per cent working 48hours or more and one-eighth 60 or morehours per week. Fathers in dual-earnerhouseholds who work more than 50 hours perweek lowered their participation in childcareand housework, while a recent study foundthat fathers who had ‘atypical’ working patternsin terms of their working hours, limited familyactivities with children and partners.The qualitative study suggests that fathers adaptas circumstances change, but that they broadlyfall into one of four main categories (althoughthese are not labels that the fathers usethemselves).■ Enforcer dad is not involved in the day today care of children and sees the mostimportant aspects of being a father asproviding a role model and clear rules forthe children. These fathers are usually olderand tend to emphasise traditional sex roles.■ Entertainer dad often entertains thechildren while mother does the householdwork like cooking and cleaning, but tendsnot to be involved in those tasks himself.■ Useful dad also entertains the children buthelps out with day to day childcare andsome household tasks. He still takes thelead from the mother about what needsdoing and when.■ Fully-involved dad is as equally involvedwith running the home and family as hispartner, at least some of the time, andparental roles are virtually interchangeable.Most fathers are in the two middle groupswhich implies a support role in the homerather than a sharing of responsibility. Thissupport is often provided mostly at theweekends, when fathers try to compensatefor the long hours they work during the weekby dedicating their weekends to family life.“I would say he is a bit of a weekend dad.I mean, he is fantastic at the weekends,he is great…but during the week he isnever here…so he probably spends lessthan five minutes with them during theweek, per day.”American research findings are similar,showing that the largest proportion of fathertime is spent on play and companionshipactivities. Weekends are emerging as specialtimes for many working families, providingopportunities for parents and children tosustain family relationships, often in the faceof increasing working hours.A number of studies show that since the1970s, there has been an upward trend infathers’ and mothers’ involvement in childcare.This has been particularly sharp for fatherswith children under the age of five years who,in the mid-1970s devoted less than a quarterof an hour per day to child-related activities(as their main activity), in contrast to twohours a day by the late 1990s. Overall, timespent by fathers accounts for one-third of alltotal parental childcare time.Fathers’ time spent on child-related activity (where this is the main activity)120■minutes per day100806040200■◆▲■▲◆1961 1974/5 1984/7 1999■◆ ▲◆▲◆■▲all fathersfathers ofchild

Fathers: balancing work and familyMen taking the support roleStructural issuesMen generally earn more than women. Thecurrent gender pay gap i.e. the averagedifference between men’s and women’s fulltimehourly wages, is 18 per cent. Betweenmen working full-time and women workingpart-time it is 41 per cent. So where the fatherearns more than the mother (as is generallythe case) it is a pragmatic family decision forthe father to continue to work full-time andfor the mother to take on more of thedomestic burden, possibly reducing herworking hours.Directly linked to this is the availability and highcost of childcare. As a result, mothers’ workpatterns and prospects often changeconsiderably after the birth of a child:“It has affected my career enormouslyactually, and it hasn’t affected Tim’s at all.”The link between the relative pay of womenand men and the division of caring roles isalso emphasised by the fact that the mostegalitarian sharing of household and childcaretasks tends to be found in dual-earnerhouseholds where the mother earns morethan her partner. In these cases, the father ismore involved in family life, both in terms ofchildcare and routine household work, “Abargaining type of interpretation: that it maynot be just having to work that warrantsincreased care giving from father, but themonetary value of that work”. 2Similarly, fathers who are involved in theemotional side of parenting – having privatetalks with children, helping with homeworketc., are more likely to be involved in routinehousehold tasks compared with those whoseinvolvement stops at leisure and entertainment.ExpectationsThe attention given to fathers in nationalpolicies can indicate the importance whichsociety places on fathers’ care of children andtheir role within the family. The broadeningof policy initiatives on fatherhood has been adistinctive feature of the latter part of Labour’sterm of office. This has brought Britain more inline with its European partners.Yet it is still generally accepted that womenwill take time off, work part-time or job sharein order to look after their children. It istaken for granted that a mother will alter herworking pattern or face the double pressure ofa work and a family career, whereas the fatherwill only have his work career to contend with.For example, schools tend to ring the motherinitially, not the father, when a child is sick:“There is a cultural acceptance thatmothers will have the first call…”In addition, some fathers show a lack ofenthusiasm for staying at home more, suggestingthat they would find it hard but mundane work.There is little reflection that this is also thesame for mothers, sometimes falling back ontraditional, gender role explanations:“I think possibly the mother is moresuited…but probably again with thetraditional root of things maybe themother is better equipped all round atbeing with the child.”In some cases, fathers who are prevented bywork commitments from spending more timewith their families do admit that this is a choicethey have made, and that they are perhapslacking the motivation to be further involved.Fathers may also feel less confident or capablethan their partner at looking after the children.Men in the case studies suggest that thereshould be courses for new fathers to preparethem for having children, involving childcareskills as well as time management.Workplace cultureDuring the 1990s there was increasedawareness amongst employers of quality oflife issues plus concerns about staff retention,stress-induced absenteeism and business costsin general. A lack of balance between workand family life is recognised as a major factorin occupational stress.2 Fuligini, A.S. and Brooks-Gunn, J. (2001) Measuring mother and father shared caregiving: An analysis using the panel study of income dynamics -child development supplement. Paper presented at the “Workshop on Measuring Father Involvement” February 8-9, 2001, Bethesda, Maryland.4

RESEARCHfindingsThe workplace culture can have a huge impactupon a father’s ability to balance his work andfamily responsibilities. This is about more thanjust family-friendly policies. It includes issuessuch as how comfortable fathers feel discussingtheir family commitments in the workplace andhow acceptable it is to leave early in order topick up the children from school, or to spendtime with them in the evenings:“... even though they might have thepolicies in writing about how they arefamily-friendly, you wonder sometimeswhat their attitude would be like if youhad a lot of needs and you had to be reallyflexible and in and out all the time.”There is a general attitude that long hoursdemonstrate commitment to an organisation,yet there is a clear relationship betweenlong working hours and levels of workdissatisfaction, unhappiness about hours andgeneral discontent about the extent to whichwork and non-work interests can be balanced.Over 80 per cent of fathers in the WLB2000survey were fairly or very satisfied with theirworking hours, but this dropped to 60 per centfor those working 48+ hours per week and to50 per cent for those regularly working 60+hours. Some fathers feel that they are activelystruggling against the culture of long hours andthat there is a constant tension:“If employers want to have a long hoursculture, I don’t see how they can reconcilebeing family-friendly employers at thesame time.”“We need to stop making work the focusof our lives. I think men are particularlyvictim to the long hours culture.”Part-time work for fathers is generally notseen as an option. Not only are the financialaspects prohibitive, but it is widely felt thatpart-time work does not have the same statusas full-time employment and that, in someway, it suggests a reduced commitment to theemploying organisation. The quality of fathers’work can also have an effect on family life, withthe effects of work overload sometimes beingmore severe than those of long hours.Balancing responsibilities at homeand at workEighty per cent of fathers and 85 per cent ofmothers agreed that employees should beable to balance their work and home lives asthey want, compared with 62 per cent ofemployers. This shows encouraging levels of‘commitment in principle’ by employersalthough there remains a substantial gapbetween this and the high degree ofexpectation of provision by parents.Although 90 per cent of companies reportedthat there was one or more ‘proactivemechanism’ in place to inform staff about whatwas available, the most common form ofcommunication, reported by over a quarter ofemployers, was word of mouth. This suggeststhat on an individual company level, manyemployers rely on unsystematic and informalinformation flows to promote awareness ofpolicies. As a result, many employees areunaware of such policies in their workplace.It is also possible that some companies activelychoose not to promote their family friendlypolicies:“I think, being truthful, we would notgo out of our way to publicise it.”Some companies argue that there is noobvious demand from fathers. But fathers maynot know that the policies exist. Even wherethey do exist, fathers are often happier relyingon informal arrangements, or assume that thepolicies are either not relevant to them, or arenot aimed at the main breadwinner. In the casestudy research, fathers sometimes tended toview the need to resolve their work and familyroles as a personal responsibility:“I do think far more is to do with yourown considerations about the work-lifebalance, and if you really want to havemore input in things at home then youhave to do it yourself.”So fathers’ expectations about whether specificwork-life balance practices could be madeavailable in their current workplace are low, asis their access to family-sensitive facilities suchas subsidised or workplace nurseries or otherfinancial help with childcare. Indeed, a majority5

Fathers: balancing work and familyExpectations of access to and provision of flexible working time arrangementsReduced hoursAnnualised hoursCompressed weekFlexitimeJob shareTerm-time onlyPart-time working■■■fathersmothersemployers0 20 40 60 80 100per centSource: Work-Life Balance 2000 Employee survey, IFER/IFF, 2000. Available from ESRC Data Archive, University of Essex.of fathers said that they were satisfied withtheir overall job, the hours they worked andtheir flexibility over working hours.Use of existing policiesFathers actual use of flexible working practicesis low, with shift work and flexitime the mostprevalent. In general, fathers were most likelyto want access to flexitime, a compressedworking week or the ability to work at home.Those who were dissatisfied with theirworking hours highlighted three favouredchanges: being able to leave on time; workingless overtime; and working more hours formore pay.Many new fathers have made use of paternityleave: 61 per cent of fathers with a childunder one year in the WLB2000 survey.This provides a good baseline figure for theintroduction of the Government’s policy oftwo weeks statutory paternity leave, whichcomes into effect in April 2003.Informal arrangementsFor many fathers, informal agreements madewith their manager were felt to be sufficientto meet their needs. In the case studies,employees working in a small business saidthere was ad hoc flexibility when necessary.It was possible to change shifts for familyreasons on occasion, but generally not toshorten working hours. This also applied inemergencies.Similarly, informal arrangements werepreferred by the public sector employees inthe case studies, even though the organisationhad formal policies in place to help parents.Employees were happy to negotiate time offwith their manager and did not tend to makeuse of the actual policies, although it is likelythat the very fact that the policies existedhelped them to negotiate this flexibility.However, managers were not alwaysunderstanding of fathers’ family commitmentsand some fathers would have preferredgreater flexibility:“I asked for a couple of hours in themorning because my boy was startingschool that morning. I asked him the daybefore and he said “no, can’t you go thenext day”…and that comes from a malethat didn’t have children.”Encouraging take-upThe early 1970s saw the beginnings of fathersensitivefamily policies in Europe. Paternityleave, which marked the arrival of a legal rightthat fathers should be absent from work for aperiod of time when their child is born, wasfirst introduced in Sweden in 1974. Thephilosophy behind the Swedish and much ofthe Nordic parental support policies has beenfrom an equal opportunities perspective –to create a social environment where womenand men have the same access toemployment, familial and personal fulfilment.6

RESEARCHfindingsUse of flexible working time arrangementsWorking from homePart-time workFlexitimeCompressed weekAnnualised hoursShift workTerm-time onlyJob share■■fathersmothers0 20 40 60per centSource: Work-Life Balance 2000 Employee survey, IFER/IFF, 2000. Available from ESRC Data Archive, University of Essex.European experience shows that whenparental leave entitlement is available to eitherthe man or the women, it is taken by veryfew men – less than five per cent. One way ofimproving father take-up is to have designated‘daddy periods’, where a proportion of paidparental leave is set aside exclusively forfathers. In Norway, four weeks of parentalleave is available only to fathers and use ofthis special father’s quota rose to 85 per centin 2000. This policy recognises the needs ofboth mothers and fathers – as the quota wasan extension of parental leave and notsubtracted from maternal leave.Scandinavian experience suggests that hightake-up of parental leave by fathers is linkedto four key conditions: when parental leaveis an individual entitlement not transferablebetween the mother and father; where thereis flexibility in the way that leave can be usedby couples; when provision for fathers ispublicised through Government awarenesscampaigns; and where there is high wagecompensation.Given this, the probable take-up of unpaidparental leave in Britain is likely to be verylimited, although it is broadly welcomed as astep in the right direction. The case studyresearch confirmed concerns that the levelof reimbursement at £100 per week forpaternity leave will not be sufficient,particularly at a time when family costs havesuddenly increased. Evidence from the Nordiccountries suggests that income replacementlevels of 80-100 per cent of earnings are anecessary condition for universal take-up.The business caseThe WLB2000 survey found that a majorityof employers felt that the impact of familysensitivepractices and policies on theorganisation was positive. Eight out of tenemployers thought that they fostered goodemployment relations and two-thirds agreedthat they improved staff motivation, retentionand turnover. However, 44 per cent thoughtthat they increased overall costs to business.European evidence is also somewhat mixed,with some surveys showing that parentalleave schemes, for example, have causedproblems for their organisations.Implications from the researchFatherhood is in a state of change. It is clearfrom the two studies that fathers are alreadymore centrally involved in family life, even ifthis is often in a support role to the mother.An informed public debate is needed abouthow fathers balance their economic and othercommitments to children and partners. Theintroduction of paternity leave could act as acatalyst for such a debate.A change in workplace culture is needed sothat active fatherhood is accepted and the7

Fathers: balancing work and familyprevalence of long working hours reduced.Excessive working hours reduce satisfactionwith work-family balance and fathers’involvement with children.The new flat-rate paid paternity leave andunpaid parental leave schemes will both needcareful monitoring to assess satisfaction anduptake. The research suggests that manyfathers in Britain will not even consider takingparental leave that is unpaid and the Nordicexperience of parental leave schemes showthat uptake is greater where incomereplacement levels are high and a specialdedicated ‘daddy quota’ is adopted.Employers need to promote policies whichare available and ensure that fathers knowwhich practices are relevant to them. Theresearch shows that fathers need moreflexibility in the workplace, with greatercontrol over their working day.Addressing the gender pay gap is key toenabling greater choice about the roles thatwomen and men play in the home. Mencurrently earn more than women on average,which encourages the traditional gender rolesof father as breadwinner and mother as carer.Fathers are more willing to alter their workpaterns if their partner earns more thanthemselves.It is important that any policies and practiceswhich are introduced to help parents balancetheir work and family roles, recognise thediffering needs of both mothers and fathers.Technical NoteThe WLB2000 Employee survey datasetcomprises data from a nationally representativesurvey of 7,500 persons in employment inworkplaces with five or more staff, including1,486 fathers and 2,260 mothers withdependent children. The Employer datasetcomprises data from a nationally representativesurvey of 2,500 workplaces with five or moreemployees. MORI conducted 61 qualitativein-depth interviews with fathers, theirpartners and HR managers in six case studyorganisations, and three focus groups withfathers, between April and June 2002.Working Fathers: earning and caringby Margaret O'Brien and Ian Shemilt,University of East Anglia (January 2003)and Dads on Dads: needs andexpectations at home and at work byWarren Hatter, Louise Vinter and RachelWilliams, MORI Social Research Institute(October 2002) are published in the EOCResearch Discussion series. They can bedownloaded from the EOC website orare available as hard copy.For further information about EOCresearch and statistical work:web: www.eoc.org.uk/researchemail: research@eoc.org.uktel: 0161 838 8340© EOC March 2003 ISBN 1 84206 046 5RESEARCHfindingsGreat Britain Wales ScotlandArndale House Windsor House St. Stephens HouseArndale Centre Windsor Lane 279 Bath StreetManchester Cardiff GlasgowM4 3EQ CF10 3GE G2 4JL8