The 6th Joint Seminar on East Asian Social Seminar(19 Nov. 2016 @Doshisha University)

1

Hiromi Tanaka
PhD student, Doshisha University

Promoting Fathers toCareIs there an easy solution to this dilemma?

Outline
2¨Introduction¨

Method¨

Results¨

Discussion

3

Introduction

Fathersʼ share of weekly unpaidwork
4% 45
40
3530

40.3

39.9
31.3

30.9
26.1

26.0

25
20
15
10

8.7

50

Source: European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS) 2010, Japan: 総務省統計局平成23年社会生活基本調査5

ʻCaring fathersʼ - policyagenda¨¨Promoting fathers to care is one of themost urgent policy issues in Japan.
Explicitly name fathers as driving forces
and targeting groups could be a firm
step towards it.

WLB policies in the UK6¨

Policies introduced under New Labour (1997-2010)
1997
Parental
leave

2003

2007

2009

Right torequestflexibleworking

Right torequestflexibleworking(extended)

Right torequestflexibleworking(extended)

2010

2014
Right torequestflexibleworking(extended)

Adoption
leave
Maternity
leave(extended)
Paternity
leave

Maternity
leave(extended)
Additional
paternity
leave

Sharedparentalleave (2015)7Parentsʼ equal sharing ofcare- not an explicit policy goal¨¨UKʼs WLB policies ‒ ʻgender neutralʼ
(Lewis and Campbell 2007)
Fathersʼ roles were ‒ ʻinitially vagueʼ
(Kilkey 2006)

Research Questions
8¨¨

How were the caring roles of fathers
discussed in the process of policymaking?
What impeded it from becoming anexplicit policy objective?

9Method

10

11 Key InformantInterviews¨
v

London in July-August 2015
By picking up the names from official policy documents and sending
emails directly + Snowball sampling

Government officials : 2¨ Lobby groups : 3¨ Think-tanks : 2¨ Academics : 2¨ TUC (trade union) : 1¨ CBI (employersʼ organization) : 1¨

11Results

12Fathers were notdiscussed
One of the things that got lost in the process was that
nobody really talked about fathers, at all.
[WLB Lobby]

I think most people, certainly men, assumed it would be women
asking for this (flexible work). I think even the women’s thinking on
the commission was that initially it would be largely a mothers’ issue.
[Chair of Work and Parents Taskforce]

There was very much a focus around how to keep women
connected to their jobs. [Civil ser vant]13

Split within thegovernment
We were loved by half of them and not at all
liked by another half.
The split was: are men trustworthy or not?
Half said yes, this is fantastic we can work withthem who are saying the right things. And theother half said no, they are just a Trojan Horsefor men pushing themselves.
So that’s what the Labour was like.
[Fathering Lobby]

The powerful opponents
14

She (a minister) just ignored it (fathers’ roles).
She thought it was silly. I had a meeting with herand through the whole meeting, she was looking
at something over my shoulder, she didn’t evenlook at me and she didn’t listen to a word I said.
Basically what she was saying is: ‘You’re a man
and what on earth could you possibly have to
say about this issue?’. I’ll never forget thatexperience. It was horrible. [Fathering Lobby]

Split within lobby groups
15

It’s a lobby. Very powerful. Very suspicious ofmen. They are trying to bolster women’s power
as their analysis is that men are a waste of time
and that men will impede women’s power so thatyou have to make women autonomous. It’s notthat they are bad people, they have an analysis
that is different from mine. My analysis is while
you make women totally responsible, you don’t
get gender equality. [Fathering Lobby]

16Itʼs harder to advocate
fathers
Maternity leave and women’s progression at work
was because of feminism. It was a part of thewider feminism movement, whereas for men it’svery piecemeal and kind of individualised. [WLB Lobby]
It’s almost impossible to get money for fathers
because fathers are not a disadvantaged group.
Fathers are silent, there’s not a big movement offathers. My son-in-law said, ‘we could neverlobby for ourselves because women still have sucha long way to go. How could we ever publicly ask
for anything for ourselves?’. [Fathering Lobby]

17

Discussion

Strong ʻveto playersʼ
18¨

Within the government
Split between the two groups of female
ministersl ʻHappy to work with men and fathering lobby
groupsʼ vs ʻSuspicious of menʼl¨Within lobby groupsSplit between lobby groupsl ʻPromoting fathersʼ caring rolesʼ vsʻSupporting womenʼs autonomyʼlStrong ʻveto playersʼ
19Implications
20

¨¨

¨

Sharing the vision of ʻcaring fathersʼ
among different actors ‒ necessary to
promote it as being an explicit policy goal.
A variety of values in feminism and routes
towards gender equality ‒ controversial.
ʻFathers are not only breadwinners, butalso caregiversʼ ‒ can it gain hegemony?

21

Thank you!
This work was supported by Grant-in-Aid for
JSPS Research Fellow Grant Number 14J01990.

22

Preference of equalsharing
% 70

64.8

60
50
4030
20
10

44.6

40.9
29.9
23.8
11.0
4.8

0

Source: International Social Survey Programme: Family and Changing Gender Roles IV ‒ ISSP
2012
*Equal sharing: both parents work full-time + both parents work part-time.