Working Fathers - Caught in the Web of the Symbolic Order of Gender

Abstract

The Scandinavian countries are currently experiencing a change in the social construction of fatherhood. This article explores the character of the change within the domain of the relationship between fatherhood and work. Against the backdrop of a theoretical understanding of gender as a cultural dynamic that is formed by the constant interplay between institutional and interactional processes and the symbolic universe of masculine and feminine, the construction of fatherhood is discussed on three levels: in the institutional context of welfare state policies, in the interactional processes of the work place and on the individual level. The analysis reveals the precarious situation that working fathers are currently facing, where state policies challenge, albeit ambiguously, the symbolic order of masculinity and the work cultures support a strengthening of the masculine work ethic with the effect that the choice of being an active father is jeopardized by evoking a very basic conflict in the symbolic universe of masculinity.