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The Default Model: Gender Equality, Fatherhood, and Structural Constraint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2013

Jude Browne*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

Extract

What does a political commitment to gender equality mean in the context of fatherhood? In what ways should the state support or compel fathers so as to affect greater gender equality? If there is any consensus on these questions in the gender literature, then it is that existing family leave policy—even the most progressive—has fallen short of a satisfactory answer. Typically, this failure is understood either in economic terms—that policy provision is simply inadequate in scale—or in terms of individual preferences that should be encouraged to change. Indeed, both of these approaches intend to incentivize men to take up more caring duties, a theme that has become central to the politics of gender equality (Gornick and Meyers 2008; Haas and Rostgaard 2011; Hobson 2002; Kamerman and Moss 2009).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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