New Parents in Europe

Edited by Daniela Grunow, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany and Marie Evertsson, Stockholm University, Sweden

New Parents in Europe is a long-desired book for everyone who wants to understand how today's work-care practices, parenting norms, and the impact of social policies are changing the lives of new parents in Europe today. The book is a masterpiece of cross-national research with longitudinal data that is sensitive to different gender ideologies of parents in various countries, their equity patterns in the division of paid and unpaid work, the gender norms over the adult life course, and the creation and maintenance of gender identities.'--Hans-Peter Blossfeld, University of Bamberg, Germany'Transition to parenthood can be imagined, but it is only following the arrival of a baby that the impact it will have dawns. It is these early years of parenthood, which are addressed in this excellent, comparative collection. Across the eight countries included, the ways in which caring and paid work are managed is explored. This includes considering non-normative care and paid work arrangements at the individual/couple level, set against national comparisons of cultural commitments to gender equality and structural features such as welfare regimes. Across the chapters, possibilities of undoing gender are glimpsed, but so too is a continued conflation at various levels, of mothers and primary caring 'obligations'. The sensitive analysis reveals how gendered 'choices' and individual practices, related to caring and paid work, come to be organised. This collection makes a timely and significant contribution to the parenthood literature and is highly recommended.'--Tina Miller, Oxford Brookes University, UK

• Contents:PrefacePART I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW1. Resisting or embracing institutional models of parenthood: an analytical frameworkDaniela Grunow 2. Comparing couples’ narratives over time: Data and methodsDaniela Grunow3. Couples in their national context: Gender ideology and maternal labour force attachment Sandra Buchler PART II THE SCANDINAVIAN MODEL OF DUAL-EARNING AND DUAL-CARING4. Realized plans or revised dreams? Swedish parents’ experiences of care, parental leave and paid work after childbirth Jenny Alsarve, Katarina Boye and Christine Roman PART III VARIETIES OF EARNING AND CARING IN CONSERVATIVE WELFARE STATES5. Working and caring: German couples’ realizations of non-normative work-care plansAnna Dechant and Annika Rinklake 6. Swimming against the tide? Austrian couples’ non-normative work-care arrangements in a traditional environment Eva-Maria Schmidt, Ulrike Zartler and Susanne Vogl7. Couples’ alignment of pre-birth plans and post-birth realities in Switzerland: Non-normative adaptation to the one and a half earner modelNadia Girardin, Doris Hanappi and Jean-Marie Le GoffPART IV EARNING AND CARING UNDER CONDITIONS OF UNSUPPORTIVE FAMILIALISM8. Transition to parenthood in Italy: the reasons for non-normativitySonia Bertolini, Rosy Musumeci, Manuela Naldini and Paola Maria Torrioni 9. Non-normative couples in Spain: Mothers’ career commitment, fathers’ work arrangements, and egalitarian ideologyMarta Seiz, María José González, Teresa Jurado-Guerrero, Irene Lapuerta and Teresa Martín-GarcíaPART V NEW WELFARE STATES’ RESPONSES TO DUAL EARNING AND CARING10. ‘It is not something we consciously do’: Polish couples’ struggles to maintain gender equality after the birth of their first child Maria Reimann 11. Non-normative parents in the gender traditional Czech RepublicOlga Nešporová PART VI DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON NEW PARENTHOOD IN EUROPE12. Swimming against the tide or going with the flow? Stories on work-care practices, parenting norms and the importance of policies in a changing EuropeMarie Evertsson and Daniela Grunow Index