9. Fatherhood and Flexible Working: A Contradiction in Terms?

This chapter derives from a desire to investigate the issues of modern fatherhood in the context of flexible working practices and gender; offering a broad-scale analysis as to the extent to which predominantly Western, employed, white-collar, middle-class fathers are embracing flexibility and under what familial and workplace circumstances. In so doing, we highlight the tensions and correlations between traditional notions of fathers as economic providers who go “out” to work and the emergence of late modern ideas concerning the dynamism between fatherhood and more flexible modes of working. Our focus on the work-life situation of fathers in senior roles is both timely and relevant to the growing body of research on work-life balance and male working patterns, which identifies white-collar fathers as under-researched and insufficiently catered for within policy.