Domestic labour, masculinity and social change: insights from working-class young men's transitions to adulthood.

Drawing on a seven-year longitudinal qualitative study in England, this paper presents evidence of how engagement with housework and childcare is regular and normalized for contemporary working-class young adult men. I explain this development with reference to inclusive masculinity theory, but supp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Gender Studies Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 274 - 288
Main Author: Roberts, Steven
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Drawing on a seven-year longitudinal qualitative study in England, this paper presents evidence of how engagement with housework and childcare is regular and normalized for contemporary working-class young adult men. I explain this development with reference to inclusive masculinity theory, but supplement this by incorporating Mannheim's concept of social generation, as recently adopted by scholars of youth sociology. The paper thus further augments other research that has documented considerable change in the construction and performance of contemporary masculinities - such as an opening up of gendered behaviours and a decrease (but not erasure) of homophobia - among young men across multiple contexts in Englishspeaking countries.