Glimpses of Change? UK fathers navigating work and care within the context of Shared Parental Leave

This study focuses on the lived experiences of 25 professionally employed UK fathers who are first-wave beneficiaries of Shared Parental Leave (SPL), which facilitated a period of leave from work during their child’s first year. Using exploratory qualitative interviews, we investigate the ways in which family relations, organisational initiatives and public policy collaborate to disrupt or transform what have hitherto been traditional gendered expectations around early infant care. Our understanding is framed using Giddens’ democratic family and notions of ‘undoing gender’. Our longitudinal design allows us to capture fathers’ lived experiences at two points, firstly pre/during their period of SPL and secondly following their return to work. In seeking glimpses of change, we first explore this at the level of men’s disruption of generational biographies, then how fathers navigate SPL policy within a contested gendered context and finally their subsequent transformations in work/care practices.
We discuss the implications for policy, recognising shortcomings in the current design of UK leave offerings.