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Fathers' time-bind and the outsourcing of “male” domestic work in Europe: the cases of the United Kingdom and Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Majella Kilkey  and
Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck
Majella Kilkey
Affiliation:
Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck*
Affiliation:
Institute for the Analysis of Society and Politics, University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. Email: e.pm@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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Abstract

In this article we examine the processes driving the outsourcing of masculinized forms of domestic work, involving household and garden maintenance and repair, and its displacement to migrant men; a trend which we conceive as part of the broader transnationalization of care that has been highlighted in feminist scholarship. The article draws on two studies conducted in the United Kingdom and Germany, and focuses on the demand on the part of households buying in “male” domestic services. We find that households use handymen in order to alleviate a father time-bind, which is rooted in three processes. Firstly, a “Europeanization” in norms around childhood, parenting and fathering; secondly, a liberalization and flexibilization of working time regimes in both countries; and thirdly, path dependency in welfare regimes based historically on a male breadwinner model. On the basis of our findings in the United Kingdom and Germany, we conclude the paper by reflecting on whether and why we might expect the commoditization of male domestic services to be manifest in other European countries.

Keywords

male domestic workfathersUnited KingdomGermany
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 109 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis

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