Recent scholarship on fathers and work-life issues discusses a wide range of impact factors, why traditional role models of fatherhood and work still persist, although fathers today more and more wish to be active caregivers in the family.

Argument

Recent scholarship on fathers and work-life issues discusses a wide range of impact factors, why traditional role models of fatherhood and work still persist, although fathers today more and more wish to be active caregivers in the family.

At this conference we focus on three core issues in the field:

• life conduct, strategies and capabilities of fathers,
• gender and organizational culture and social responsibilities,
• policies and politics of fatherhood.

How do policies and actors, and – in a more general way – what kind of mechanisms within work organizations create or prevent capabilities for fathers to participate in family life and child care? In how far can we perceive barriers for an increased involvement of fathers as a matter of inequality not only for women, but also for men and especially for fathers?

Scholars from different countries with different institutional contexts and theoretical and methodological approaches will contribute to this conference.

Convenors

• Mechtild Oechsle, Bielefeld (Germany)
• Brigitte Liebig, Olten (Switzerland)

Program

Thursday, March 12

14:00 – 14:15 Welcome - Director of the ZiF

Welcome - Speaker of CRC 882, Bielefeld

14:15 – 15.00 Inequalities and Capabilities, Rationalities and Politics:

• Introduction to the Conference, Mechtild Oechsle (Bielefeld, GER) and Brigitte Liebig (Olten, SUI)

Panel I: Theoretical Approaches and Methodological Challenges

Chairs: Brigitte Liebig & Mechtild Oechsle

• 15:00 – 15:45 Mechanisms of Inequality in Organizations – an Overview, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (Amherst, USA)
• 15:45 – 16:15 - Coffee Break
• 16:15 – 17:00 Capabilities and Agency for Work Life Balance – A Theoretical Framework, Barbara Hobson (Stockholm, SWE)
• 17:00 – 17:45 Research on Work and Family – Some Issues and Challenges, Suzan Lewis (London, GBR)
• 18:00 - Dinner at ZiF –

Friday, March 13

Panel II: Fathers in Organizations: Life Conduct, Strategies and Capabilities

Chairs: Tomke König & Sebastian Winter

• 09:00 – 09:45 Work Devotion and Masculinity among Executive Men, Mary Blair-Loy (San Diego, USA)
• 09:45 – 10:30 Fathers’ Parental Leave and Career in Norwegian Elite Professions, Sigtona Halrynjo (Oslo, NOR)
• 10:30 – 11:00 - Coffee Break -
• 11:00 – 11:45 Fathers in Parental Leave: Decision Making and Negotiating in Work Organizations and Partnership, Michael Meuser (Dortmund, GER)
• 11:45 – 12:30 Work Organizations and Life Conduct of Fathers: Configurations of Constraints and Capabilities, Sandra Beaufaÿs and Annette von Alemann (Bielefeld, GER)
• 12:30 – 14:00 - Lunch -

Panel III: Fathers in Organizations: Cultures, Rationalities and Management

Chairs: Annette von Alemann & Johanna Possinger

• 14:00 – 14:30 The Ikumen Hype: An Inquiry into Japan’s New Fathers as Consumers, Employees and Managers, Florian Kohlbacher (Suzhou, CHN)
• 14:30 – 15:15 Ambivalent Benevolence: Organizational Rationalities of Fatherhood, Brigitte Liebig / Martina Peitz (Olten, SUI)
• 15:15 – 16:00 Top Managers’ Views on Fathers Taking leave, Laura den Dulk and Wike Been (Rotterdam, NED)
• 16.00 – 16:30 - Coffee Break -
• 16:30 – 17:15 Interactions between Organizational Behaviour and Fathers’ Quota, Elin Kvande (Trondheim, NOR)
• 17:15 – 18:00 Symbolic Gender Orders in Organizations. Persistence and Change, Annalisa Murgia / Barbara Poggio (Trento, ITA)
• 19:00 Dinner at a restaurant downtown

Saturday, March 14

Panel IV: Policies and Politics of Fatherhood

Chair: Thomas Gesterkamp

• 09:00 – 09:45 Who Cares? Men’s Share of Care in Europe and the Role of Organizations, Elli Scambor (Graz, AUT)
• 09:45 – 10:30 International Leave Policies and Their Impact on Fatherhood, Christina Boll (Hamburg, GER)
• 10:30 – 11:00 - Coffee Break -
• 11:00 – 11:45 Father’s Initiatives as Institutional Players in the Work Family Field, Hans-Georg Nelles (Düsseldorf, GER)
• 11:45 – 12:30 Men and Work-family Balance: Human Resource Policies and Constellations of Actors, Marc Gärtner (Berlin, GER)
• 12:30 – 13:30 - Lunch -

Closing Session

13:30 – 14:00 Fatherhood and Work Organizations: Results and Further Challenges