Nurturing, breadwinning, and upbringing: paternal responsibilities by Finnish men in early fatherhood

Abstract

In the Nordic countries, including Finland, gender-balanced distribution of childcare is both the goal of family policies and nowadays also a cultural norm of parenting. Thus, in most families, the father, along with the mother, plays a considerable role in handson care. This study captures and analyzes paternal responsibilities as narrated by Finnish fathers. It draws on 32 interviews with 16 fathers conducted during the first three years of their fatherhood, and applies the method of narrative inquiry, in which narratives are understood as constructors of knowledge. The analysis yielded nurturing, breadwinning and upbringing, framed by the levels of everyday duties and comprehensive commitments, as the constituents of paternal responsibility. Probably as an outcome of the Finnish gender-equal and familistic societal atmosphere, nurturing played the focal role in the men’s accounts. On the conceptual level, the results support the view that the dimension of responsibility is wholly embedded in fathering practices.