Enabling family policies, changing gender norms: increasing childcare and housework among Norwegian fathers from 1980–2010

Abstract

Father politics belongs to different ‘worlds’, according to Michael Rush. The Nordic ‘world’ has developed better opportunities for fathers’ involvement in unpaid family work than other Western countries, thus lessening the gap between increasing social expectations and fathers’ practices. In recent decades, Norwegian fathers have increased the time they spend on childcare and housework. This article explores the role of fathers’ education in generating this change. Our analysis of four linked time use surveys in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 showed that the fathers spent more time on both housework and childcare in 2010 than in 1980, even when compositional changes among the fathers, including increased levels of education, were accounted for. This development likely resulted from enabling family policies, generation replacement and changing gender norms. While the total time devoted to housework and childcare increased among the fathers across all educational groups, in 2010 the fathers with a long university education spent the most time on these activities. They also had the highest rate of change, especially in the 2000s, which may indicate a further consolidation of new father practices.