Men’s Changing Productive and Reproductive Roles in Transnational Filipino Families

Abstract

Our research examines the experiences of husbands who remain in the Philippines, at least initially, while their wives enter overseas labor employment contracts as nurses in Ireland. Specifically, we examine the role shifts experienced by men as their wives begin to out-eam them and as they become financially dependent on their wives. We assess what these changes imply for the ways in which Filipino masculinity is constructed and experienced in the Philippines and in Ireland. We draw on several sources of data, including semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with women who migrated to Ireland in response to opportunities created in the nursing sector during the Celtic Tiger era, and interviews and focus groups with husbands who eventually joined them. We highlight factors affecting the household division of labor before migration, when the spouses are separated, and during reunification.