What is the impact of COVID on men's engagement in care? Has pandemic created opportunities for caring men to be more visible and supported in their companies? As different studies confirm that COVID-19 pandemic resulted in women’s over-burden with home responsibilities and being obliged to combine work, home and child-care duties, we looked into situation of men in care and how this situation changed men’s lives and their burden with professional work and possibilities of performing care roles. Ewelina Ciaputa, Dr. Ewa Krzaklewska and Dr. Marta Warat from the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University in Krakow presented the results of the analysis of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on men in care (“Men, fatherhood and the COVID-19 pandemic”) during 15th Conference of the European Sociological Association, 31 August - 3 September. The results from the qualitative interviews with employees, their partners and experts show that successful intertwining of work and care was possible thanks to the company's culture, practices and solutions that support caring masculinities, as well as access to resources available to middle-class fathers.
What is Men in Care?
Men in Care (MiC) was a project of twelve national organisations from seven different European countries, which will help reduce barriers for men who want to become involved in caring activities. MiC aims to improve workplace conditions to promote men taking caring roles and will assess how policies and workplace cultures can change to enable men to become more active in caring for children, elderly, partners, co-workers and friends. Involving workers, trade unions, employers, and families, the project will enable men to take time to care for themselves and others. Find more information on the project here.
