Jendaa aidentiti no dainamikusu: berugii ni okeru sengyoshufu no jirei chosa kara (The dynamics of gender identity: the case of Belgian stay at home fathers).

Merla, Laura [UCL]

This paper is based on the results of a doctoral research on 21 stay at home fathers living in Belgium and a review of research conducted in Australia, Sweden and the USA on men taking the primary responsibility for childcare. In this paper gender identity is defined as the dynamic result of a tension between, on the one hand, the norms that are assigned in the social stock of knowledge to males (for masculinities) and females (for femininities) contributing to a typified comprehension of the world and orienting practices and, on the other hand, personal elements of identity through which individuals give meaning to their practices and can, in a reflexive process, question the link between masculinities/femininities, assigned norms and biological sex. The accuracy of this definition is demonstrated through a comparative overview of the norms stay at home fathers are confronted with in their daily interactions and the strategies Belgian fathers use to (re)construct a positive self-image. We will see that stay American, Australian, Belgian and Swedish at home fatherhood transgresses two major norms: men ought to work and provide for their family, and childcare is a female prerogative. In order to deal with the transgression of these norms, Belgian stay at home fathers develop a self-proclaimed “masculine”, “alternatively masculine”, “androgynous” or “feminine” gender identity that combine in various ways with three distinct identity management systems where the transgression of men’s assignation to paid work is assumed, limited or mediated.