Open AccessNegotiating parenting practices: the arguments and justifications of Finnish couples
Author(s) -
Petteri Eerola,
Johanärvi,
Johanna Terava,
Katja Repo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
families, relationships and societies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 2046-7443
pISSN - 2046-7435
DOI - 10.1332/204674320x15898834533942
Subject(s) - negotiation , individualism , gender studies , sociology , division of labour , parental leave , social psychology , work (physics) , psychology , political science , law , social science , mechanical engineering , engineering
This article explores Finnish different-sex couples’ ( n = 12) negotiations on their parental division of labour. Theoretically, the article is based on the literature on gendered parenting practices and relational negotiations. Our discourse analysis reveals how the couples produced ‘togetherness’ and ‘our family’ by representing their care practices as agreements, irrespective of whether the care was described as equally shared or distinctly gendered. Disagreements reflecting more individualistic tones, and mainly resulting from the mothers’ sense of unfairness, were especially foregrounded when the distribution of household duties was discussed. The analysis also revealed how men cited involved fatherhood as a justification for their lesser responsibility for housework, while women sought to reconcile the contradictory discourses of equal parenting and mother’s primacy. Our results show how personal wishes and preferences, work life, family policies and cultural discourses are reflected in couples’ negotiations on parenting practices and moral identities pertaining to ‘good’ motherhood and fatherhood.