Daniela Grunow and Marie Everstsson (eds.): New Parents in Europe: Work-Care Practices, Gender Norms and Family Policies
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Daniela Grunow and Marie Everstsson (eds.): New Parents in Europe: Work‑Care Practices, Gender Norms and Family Policies. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 2019 Katya Ivanova1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
The volume “New parents in Europe: Work-care practices, gender norms and family policies” is edited by Daniela Grunow and Marie Everstsson and was published by Edward Elgar in 2019. It is the second of two closely related books to come out from the Transparent network, an international research cooperation which was established by the editors of this volume and which studies the transition to parenthood. The impetus for the research presented in these volumes is the finding that though individuals across countries report increasingly egalitarian attitudes toward the division of paid and unpaid labor, the lived experiences after the transition to parenthood do not appear to mirror those attitudes. In other words, the key question is why do couples, which declared the intention to divide tasks equally once they become parents, display less egalitarian task allocation after welcoming their first child? The answer provided by the research presented in this volume is certainly of interest to family scholars and social demographers alike. Based on in-depth interviews with heterosexual, dual-earner couples during pregnancy and after the transition to parenthood, the authors examine how “non-normative” (as labeled in the book) pre-birth plans about the division of paid and unpaid labor were either realized or modified and even abandoned over time. The truly impressive data collection effort spans eight European countries (Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic). The study of why new parents, who planned to divide tasks equally, resist or embrace a more “normative” division of labor (i.e., one that “reflects an orientation towards gendered separate spheres of (predominantly female) caring and (predominantly male) earning,” p. 4) is organized around three key analytical perspectives: the couple perspective, the transition perspective, and the institutional perspective. First, by interviewing both partners within a couple, the researchers highlight how individual experiences of parenthood and parenting choices are tied to those of the partner. Across many of the national contexts, the interviews demonstrate * Katya Ivanova [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
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that whereas fathers’ involvement in childcare is often framed as a choice, mothers’ commitment and, importantly, ability to care are perceived as more “natural” and “instinctual.” Therefore, it is mothers who are left as the default carers when circumstances following the birth require adjustments in the initial plans or when barriers to fulfilling the original intentions prove to be too high. Second, the transition perspective adopted in the book means that the authors continuously reflect on the change over time in the co
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