Flexible Work and Flexible Fathers

Abstract

The expansion of the parental leave scheme in Norway, which now grants extensive rights to employed fathers, has occured in a period of great changes in working life. The equality politics of the welfare state have been explicitly focussed on bringing reproduction more into the open in working life by allowing mothers and fathers the right to stay at home on leave when they have children. To have working life adapt to family life is, however, in contrast with the new trends in working life whereby some workplaces are becoming more and more seductive and greedy. In this article we examine two different types of leave with regard to standardisation and flexibilisation, and ask what type is most successful considering central characteristics of late-modern working life such as individualism and choice, flexible working hours and boundless jobs. Findings show that the majority of fathers use the compulsory leave while the uptake of the flexible leave is inhibited by considerations of its impact on men's employment.