Introduction

This chapter deals with how fathers manage their work life in conjunction with their home life. When Norway debated the father's quota prior to its introduction, there were three main arguments for such a reform. The first was a gender equality argument: if fathers became more involved in the provision of care for their children, this would lead to a more democratic sharing between men and women of the obligations and rights in family and working life. The second argument was that the relationship between father and child would be strengthened by fathers’ greater presence and participation in day-to-day care tasks. Third, it was argued that involvement in childcare would benefit fathers themselves and give men the opportunity to work on and develop new aspects of their emotional repertoire (Mannifest, 1989). Making fathers out of men was thus deemed favourable for mothers, children and the fathers themselves. The benefits of the leave for fathers themselves is one point of departure for this chapter, which aims to explore what emotional and personal changes the fathers have experienced.

In the aftermath of the introduction of the father's quota, research has been concerned to see the effects of this reform. As noted, the father's quota has made a large majority of fathers use this leave fully or in part when they have a child. Thus, it has had a significant effect on the way fathers spend their time during their baby's first year. Fathers with small children are now temporarily away from work much more frequently than was previously the case (Kitterod and Kjeldstad, 2006). However, as Lammi-Taskula (2006: 95) observes, welfare state attempts to encourage (or promote) parental leave use for fathers are effective only up to a point. The major part of the total parental leave time is still taken by mothers, and the fact that fathers have taken leave and become more involved in childcare has not had much effect with respect to reducing their working hours after their leave is over (Brandth and Kvande, 2003a; Kjelstad, 2006; Kitterod, 2007). We are interested in exploring if becoming a father, having taken leave and cared for a child have any consequences for their time investment in working life.