Men, masculinities and change

Men, masculinities and change has been one of my major research interests since the 2000s. My research has focused on men, work and family within a father–son design. I conducted a longitudinal follow-up study (2006–2014) of the Work-Sharing Couples Project (1970–1975), an experimental research project that was carried out in Norway in the early 1970s. Its aim was to change gendered patterns of breadwinning and care through both spouses working part-time and sharing domestic work and childcare. What were the work-sharing men’s motivations, and the consequences for them over the life course, as husbands, fathers and for their careers, of their working part time and sharing household work? Have the untraditional work-family arrangements in their parental homes influenced adult sons’ work-family adaptations? How can fathers’ and sons’ work-family adaptations, respectively, be understood in relation to contemporary discourses and structures of opportunity in the 1970s and today? As a longitudinal and intergenerational empirical study of men who promoted an egalitarian pattern of work and care, the  study represents a historically informed contribution to current research and discussions of men, work, care and gender equality.

So far, this project has resulted in the following publications

  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2014). Modern Men: A Norwegian 30-Year Longitudinal Study of Intergenerational Transmission and Social Change (PDF). Örebro Studies in Gender Research, 3. Örebro: Örebro University. ISBN 91-7529-027-0.
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2014). Changing men, changing times; fathers and sons from an experimental gender equality study (PDF). The Sociological Review. Published online ahead of print 23 April 2014. doi: 10.1111/1467-954X.12156.
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2014). Theorising love, work and family in early Norwegian family research and today. In Anna G. Jónasdóttir and Ann Ferguson (eds), Love—A Question for Feminism in the Twenty-First Century. London/New York: Routledge (Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality). ISBN 0415704294.
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn; Farstad, Gunhild Regland (2012). ’Am I rambling?’ On the advantages of interviewing couples together (PDF). Qualitative Research, 14(1), 3–19. Published online ahead of print 28 September 2012. doi:10.1177/1468794112459671.
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2012). From work-sharing couples to equal parents. Changing perspectives of men and gender equality. In Maria Jansdotter Samuelsson, Clary Krekula, Magnus Åberg (eds), Gender and Change. Power, Politics and Everyday Practices (pp. 53–72). Karlstad: Karlstad University Press. ISBN 978-86637-05-7.
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2011). How Men Became the Local Agents of Change towards Gender Equality. Journal of Gender Studies, 20(1), 3–18 (DOI) (PDF).
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2010). Like Father, Like Son? The Transmission of Values, Family Practices and Work-Family Adaptations to Sons of Work-Sharing Men. Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research and Practice about Men as Fathers, 8(3), 276–299. (DOI) (PDF)
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2010). Part-Time Work and the Career and Life Choices of the Men from the Work-Sharing Couples Study. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 29(6), 573–592. (DOI) (PDF)
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2010). Den norske likedelingsmodellen – fra samfunnskritikk til hegemonisk styringsmodell [The Norwegian model of gender equality – from social critique to hegemonic state steering]. Sosiologi i dag, 40(1–2), 35–56. (PDF)
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2009). Fathers and sons – gender socialization and intergenerational transmission revisited. NORMA – Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies, 4(1), 83–102. (PDF)
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2009). Norwegian Work-Sharing Couples Project 30 years later. Revisiting an experimental research project for gender equality in the family. Equal Opportunities International, 28(4), 304–323. (DOI) (PDF)
  • Bjørnholt, Margunn (2009). ”The unhappy marriage of men and gender equality”. Paper, ”Men and Masculinities, Moving On! Embodiments, Virtualities, Transnationalisations”, GEXcel – Centre of Gender Excellence, Linköping University, 27–29 April 2009. Published in Alp Biricik and Jeff Hearn (eds.) GEXcel Work in Progress Report Volume VI, Centre of Gender Excellence, 2009.