artwork by Christine Martell

In 2011 I started blogging. What did I learn? I learned that the scholar who blogs can face complementary and conflicting practices in writing, reading, and promotion. Find out more at the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Scholarly Blogging: Once a Tortoise, Never a Hare.”

Last summer (July 2011), I was asked by the New York Times to participate in a debate about women and work in Europe. I chose to address the issue of policy changes that work towards gender change and how men’s parental leave is a critical part of this issue.

Below is the first part of my response; for the full piece, click here.

Ten years ago when I was listening to, and writing about, the stories of stay-at-home dads and single fathers, many men asked me why it was that I – a woman, a feminist – was so interested in the lives of fathers. I was continually asked: Don’t feminists typically study mothers? What does feminism have to do with fatherhood? Isn’t feminism about women, after all?

Read the full article here.

*Image: “More Together” courtesy of Christine Martell www.christinemartell.com

Twenty-one years ago, my life was very focused on equally shared parenting.

I was a new doctoral student interviewing British couples who were trying to share housework and childcare (although such couples were notoriously difficult to find back then). And I was a new mother sharing parenting and housework with my husband. While we did not know it at the time, we were in fact practicing what Marc and Amy Vachon describe in their book as “Equally Shared Parenting” (ESP):

“Equally shared parenting is the purposeful practice of two parents sharing equally in the four domains of childrearing, breadwinning, housework and time for self.”

We were both students living in a small student apartment at Cambridge University. With our families back in Canada, we had no family support in England; with my scholarship as our only income, we had little money for extra childcare help. We had no car, no TV, no Internet access. We just split our days between work and childcare, housework (not much), and leisure. While breastfeeding introduced some differences in our days, my husband took on other routine domestic tasks. When our daughter started half-time daycare at the age of two, we alternated the dropping off and picking up, and we had mommy days and daddy days.

That was a long time ago.

In the last twenty one years, I have continued to research and write about the lives of couples who challenge traditional gender norms in paid work and care work (e.g. stay-at-home dads, single fathers, breadwinning mothers, fathers who take parental leave, and gay fathers). And my husband and I have raised three daughters (now 21 and 17-year-old twins) and have gone from equal breadwinners to me being the primary breadwinner. I would describe our journey as shared parenting but not equally shared parenting.

To learn more about my thoughts on the book Equally Shared Parenting by Marc and Amy Vachon, click here to read my recent guest post at PhDinparenting

I belong to one of the couple types that Hanna Rosin described in her recent piece on breadwinner wives in Slate magazine—the one where the “woman is a born workaholic and the man lives a slower pace”. Although it is more complex than those labels, I have nevertheless lived a version of that story for about twenty years.

I’m a professor, researcher and author; my husband is a naturopathic doctor / acupuncturist whose work schedule goes up and down depending on the economy. We have raised three children together (one is now 20, and the twins are 16 years old).

I have also spent twenty years researching and writing about the changing stories of breadwinning mothers and primary caregiving fathers.

Read the full story here.

 
*Photo credits: Mom and Dad (Flying a Kite), courtesy of one of my daughters (at age 5)

Currently doing research and writing!
Upcoming events will be posted in early 2012.

Recent

On March 31, 2011, Andrea delivered the annual Sorokin Lecture at the University of Saskatchewan: “Breadwinning Moms & Caregiving Dads: A Quiet Revolution, A Resilient Problem, and One Persistent Puzzle.”

SSHRC Research for Real Life (Feburary 2011)

Are men being kicked out of playgrounds? Are dads facing playground or playgroup discrimination? These questions, and some answers, were floating on the blogosphere and twitterverse over the last few weeks.

Read the full post here at Girl With Pen.

Look for two special issues of the journal Fathering on Men, Work and Parenting (co-edited by Linda Haas and Margaret O’Brien) in November 2010 and May 2011.

Other recent publications on comparative perspectives on fatherhood, families and comparative social policies:

Fathering Across Diversity and adversity: international perspectives and policy interventions

The Politics of Parental Leave Policies

The Globe and Mail recently published an excellent series on Work-Life Balance for Mothers and Fathers and the importance of fathers take up of parental leave.