Working fathers in Europe: earning and caring?

Abstract

A common conception of modern fatherhood is that there has to be a trade off between being a financial provider or an active carer. This briefing, drawing on an analysis of large-scale European survey data, which is both longitudinal and comparative, explores the possibility that a father’s success and commitment as a financial provider does not necessarily prevent a similar commitment to the caring and nurturing aspects of fathering (Marsiglio 1995). In this study, earnings of co-residential fathers and non-fathers are compared in order to examine whether fathers who spend more time looking after their children work fewer hours and earn less than other fathers and non-fathers, for the period 1994 to 2001, in fourteen European countries.