Many working fathers are potential users of the work-family reconciliation measures that exist at their organisations, but do not request them. One of the barriers that they find is a lack of sensitivity at the companies where they work towards men who wish to achieve a balance between their working life and their family. 

According to this research study, working fathers who have the perception of working at a company that supports male reconciliation experience less of a divide between the theoretical right to use these measures and the real capacity to do so, which reduces their sensation of work-family conflict and increases their job satisfaction.

Men with small children use work-family reconciliation measures to a lesser extent than women. A notable imbalance between mothers and fathers exists in this area. 

For example, according to data from the fourth quarter of 2018 of the Active Population Survey, only 4.9% of wage earning fathers (with children aged zero to four years) worked part-time, whereas in the case of mothers, this percentage is 29.2%. Furthermore, only 12.7% of these fathers indicated that their reason for working part- time was “the care of children or of ill, disabled or elderly adults”, whereas in mothers this percentage was 47.6%.

This lesser use of reconciliation measures by men is also indicated by the results of a survey, on which this research is based, conducted in 2016 among 1,785 couples with small children in the Community of Madrid (Belope Nguema et al., 2018). The following two graphs show some of the results for the subgroup of fathers and mothers who were wage-earners at the time of the birth or adoption of their child.

Thus, following the birth or adoption, the mothers used an average of 162.7 days of leave to care for their baby, whereas the fathers used 16.8 days. Furthermore, 37.7% of mothers requested a reduction in working hours or to work part time when returning to work, whereas only 4% of fathers did the same. The differences in terms of requesting timetable flexibility and changes of shift were also important.

Many wage-earning fathers would like to balance the time and energy that they devote to work and family. In theory, these workers have access to a series of reconciliation measures, which are available at the organisations where they work. However, they face a series of barriers, many common to those experienced by mothers and some others that are somewhat different. These barriers inhibit the use of reconciliation measures, creating a gap between the theoretical right to use them and the real capacity for doing so (Hobson et al., 2011). 

In practice, many parents find themselves with a small/meagre margin for manoeuvre in opting to make effective use of these measures, which means they have the feeling that their capacity to make a free choice is limited. This capacity to choose freely is what is known as “capacity for agency”; in other words, the capacity to do what one would want to do (Sen 1989). The factors that favour a working father feeling he has the capacity to use reconciliation measures are of three types: individual, political and social, and those related with the working environment.

The work environment, shaped by the corporate culture that exists with respect to male reconciliation, is one of the determining factors of the effective capacity to choose reconciliation.

Many fathers consider that at the companies in which they work, the need to reconcile is associated, above all, with the female rather than the male workforce. It is as if the need to reconcile work and family life is “not for them” (Burnett et al., 2013). 

Over half of the parents included in our research were of the opinion that at their companies “it is considered more natural for a mother to request a reconciliation measure than for a father to do so”.

New social norms related with paternity establish that “being a good dad” means being a father who is involved in the care of his children (Kaufman, 2013). Many wage- earning fathers are what is known as “new dads”; i.e., they are parents who want to participate actively in all phases of their children’s development. This greater participation requires spending more time with small children, which often makes the use of some kind of reconciliation measure necessary (Fernández Cornejo et al. 2018).

However, very few fathers use these reconciliation measures, and this is consistent with the high level of conflict between work and family that (on average) is observed among them. In fact, as revealed by the following graphs, the level of work-family conflict experienced by fathers is greater than that of mothers.

As revealed by the following graphs, this research considers two factors that affect men’s sensation of work-family conflict, as well as their job satisfaction. 

First of all, having the perception of working at an organisation that supports work- family reconciliation (of both fathers and mothers), i.e., having the feeling that they work at a “family-responsible” company, reduces the sensation of work-family conflict among fathers and improves their job satisfaction. 

Secondly, having the perception of working at an organisation where there is no problem of “gender bias in reconciliation” (corporate culture unfavourable to male reconciliation) also contributes to reducing the sensation of work-family conflict of fathers and to increasing their job satisfaction. 

Furthermore, another aspect that should be highlighted is that these two factors usually go together: the fathers surveyed considered that companies that supported family-work reconciliation were also those in which there was less gender bias in reconciliation.

One way of promoting more convergence between “wanting and doing” is encouraging companies to be more sensitive towards the fact that fathers also have a need for reconciliation. A human resources policy that is sensitive in this way would incorporate actions such as: facilitating and encouraging fathers to use the new, longer paternity leave available, which will gradually equal maternity leave; implementing a role-model strategy, encouraging male management staff to also use reconciliation measures; endeavouring to ensure that the reconciliation culture reaches the intermediate management level of the organisation; and questioning the traditional corporate culture which stigmatises those who use reconciliation measures. 

Working at organisations that are more sensitive to reconciliation, in general, and to male reconciliation, in particular, is a factor that may help increasing numbers of fathers to feel psychologically prepared to challenge gender norms and the barriers that – in work spheres and in circles of family and friends etc. – limit their capacities for choice with regard to work-family balance.

This article has been adapted from this study:

S. BELOPE-NGUEMA, J.A. FERNÁNDEZ-CORNEJO, L. ESCOT and E. DEL POZO-GARCIA (2018): «Why Spanish working fathers do not request the reconciliation measures available in their companies?», Social Politics, 25(2).
 

More bibliographic references:

BURNETT, S.B., C.J. GATRELL, C.L. COOPER and P. SPARROW (2013): «Fathers at work: a ghost in the organizational machine», Gender, Work & Organization, 20(6).

FERNÁNDEZ CORNEJO, J.A., L. ESCOT, E. DEL POZO-GARCIA, S. BELOPE-NGUEMA and C. CASTELLANOS (2018): «Brecha madre-padre en el uso de las medidas de conciliación y su efecto sobre las carreras profesionales de las madres», Cuadernos de Trabajo de la Facultad de Estudios Estadísticos, UCM.

HOBSON, B., S. FAHLÉN and J. TATÁCKS (2011): «Agency and capabilities to achieve a work-life balance: a comparison of Sweden and Hungary», Social Politics, 18(2).

KAUFMAN, G. (2013): Superdads. How fathers balance work and family in the 21st century, Nueva York: New York University Press.

SEN, A. (1989): «Development as capability expansion», Journal of Development Planning, 19.