Regendering care in the aftermath of recession?

Boyer, Kate ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8356-4412, Dermott, Esther, James, Al and MacLeavy, Julie 2017. Regendering care in the aftermath of recession? Dialogues in Human Geography 7 (1) , pp. 56-73. 10.1177/2043820617691632

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Abstract

Against a backdrop of persistent gender inequalities around childcare, recent research suggests that some men – and especially fathers – are engaging to a greater extent in the everyday tasks of social reproduction. However, our understanding of the multiple factors, motivations and institutions that facilitate and constrain this nuanced ‘regendering of care’ phenomenon in different national contexts remains limited. Previous work has theorized the uneven rise of male primary caregiving in North America and Scandinavia. This article extends these debates through an empirical focus on the United Kingdom in the wake of the 2008–09 recession and double dip of 2011–12, to explore male work-care in relation to economic restructuring, welfare spending cuts, rising costs of childcare, policy interventions which seek to culturally and numerically defeminize care work, and concerns over work–life balance in an ‘age of austerity’. The final part of the article explains the significance of a larger research agenda that recentres the expansive work–life balance literature through an expanded focus of analysis on men, work-care intermediaries and socially sustainable modes of post-recessionary growth.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	2043-8206
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 May 2016
Date of Acceptance:	4 May 2016
Last Modified:	03 Dec 2024 16:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/90741

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