This volume examines how fathers fulfill their roles both within the family and at work and what institutional support could be of most benefit to them in combining these roles.
This book is a comparative study of family change, parental employment and social policy in the five Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. In all these countries family forms have been profoundly affected by lower fertility rates, lower marriage rates, increased cohabitation, higher risks of relationship breakdown and episodes of lone parenthood. These changes have also been linked to an increase in the proportion of mothers participating in the labor market. .The contributors to this book trace these social trends over the last twenty years and analyze how social policy has developed and evolved in response. They argue that while the Nordic countries pioneered efforts to recognize new family forms and reconcile work and family life, there is still considerable variation between them as well as some evidence that the non-Nordic countries are catching up.