How working fathers and their fathering are discursively regulated through psychological knowledge

What is it about?

In this paper, we develop an 'analytics of government' approach to the study of work/life balance and gender in organizations. We explore and critically examine the psychological regimes of truth that organize and regulate male parenting and partly constitute the conditions of possibility for male identity and subjectivity both as fathers and employees. Based on an empirical analysis of expert literature on male parenting, we conclude that prevalent psychological regimes of truth about fathers and fathering do not necessarily render enactable the sorts of identities that enable both men and women to achieve a better work/life balance.

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Why is it important?

The study offers one explanation for the fact that in the everyday practice of families and organizations the prevalent ways of ‘combining work and family life’ still remain gendered.