Today's ideal father is a present and natural part of his children's lives. But this ideal is being challenged in public debate, and particularly on social media, where we are seeing growing gender polarisation.
Many influencers promote more traditional gender roles in the family based on biology, where the woman is expected to be the family's caregiver and the man its main breadwinner.
Welcome to a debate on fatherhood and new masculinities, where we will explore questions such as:
- Is Norwegian gender equality policy capable of accommodating different ways of being a man?
- What can the role of the father teach us about future care needs?
- What prevents fathers from taking on a greater caring role today?
Programme:
Welcome by moderator Lee Michael Shults, Associate Professor and Director of UiA – Centre for Gender and Equality.
Opening talk:
"Expectations of fathers and their experiences of the child health clinic" by Bente Kristin Høgmo, Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger (UiS).
She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Public Health, and conducts research on parents, fathers and child health clinic services.
Panel discussion:
Fatherhood in transition: Do we need an updated approach to fathers as caregivers?
- Bente Kristin Høgmo, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Public Health (UiS)
- Berit Eggebø Næss, Senior Adviser at Reform – Resource Centre for Men and head of the project An Equal Child Health Clinic (Ein likestilt helsestasjon)
- Kenneth Mørk, politician in Kristiansand (Labour Party)
- Ronald Mayora Synnes, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work (UiA)
The event is organised in collaboration with the University of Agder (UiA), UiA – Centre for Gender and Equality, the Equality Centre (Likestillingssenteret), the KUN Centre for Equality and Diversity, the Western Norway Equality Centre (Likestillingssenteret på Vestlandet), Reform – Resource Centre for Men, and Kilden genderresearch.