Becoming primary caregivers? Unemployed fathers caring alone in Spain

Abstract

This article analyses how unemployed fathers with employed partners broach childcare and how they conceive of their own identities. It aims primarily to determine whether these fathers actually play the part of primary caregivers. The analysis is based on in-depth interviews with 26 unemployed fathers who spent at least three months caring for their children. The findings show that these fathers engaged intensively in a wide variety of caring tasks. Nonetheless, their role as primary caregivers is called into question on the grounds of attitude. They tended to take for granted that they should set aside time and space for themselves, adding to their partners’ dual workload. Moreover, the overall responsibility for care fell largely on mothers. Subjectively speaking, while one group of fathers resorted to egalitarian precepts to normalise their situation, for many others, the inability to meet the standard expectations of traditional masculinity prompted an identity conflict.