Fathers and childcare: Are gender social norms in India changing?

Abstract

AbstractThe involvement of fathers in the care of new‐borns and young children is becoming a fact of life in contemporary urban India. However, there is little empirical research on changes in the gender social norms around childcare in India. We do not know if there are some childcare responsibilities that men are happy to take on while there are others which are still considered the ‘Mommy domain’? The article is based on an exploratory research study interrogating the increasing role played by fathers in the care of their young children in urban India. Based on in‐depth interviews with two generations of fathers, it focuses on the differences in their participation in childcare activities. The study finds that both, the practice as well as the discourse concerning childcare among urban middle‐class Indians are changing and thus the gender norms for childcare responsibility can be said to be somewhat shifting for a certain class of Indian families.