Part-time fathers
Monday is the day when Alain Mazenauer from Zurich grabs his two-year-old son and puts him in the bike trailer. He rides his mountain bike up the Uetliberg, his son whooping with joy behind him. Later, they go to the supermarket. The little boy pushes a shopping trolley for children. By the time his mum gets home from the office, dinner is on the table.
Assembly is very important to father Alain. On these days, he is completely off work and only there for his son. This is what he had in mind when he reduced his full-time job by 20 per cent with the birth of his child. The idea had already occurred to him while his wife was pregnant. And she thought it made sense from the start for dad to spend more time at home with the child. Six months after the birth, she returned to her job, working 60 per cent.
Although many families in Switzerland would like to have such a division, only a few actually realise it. Today, however, slightly more do than ten years ago. According to empirical research conducted in 2018 by scientists at the School of Applied Psychology in Olten SO, part-time working men and fathers are «no longer a rarity, but a visible minority». This is still true three years later.
Why are part-time working fathers still in the minority? «The reasons are complex,» says Tobias Oberli from the UND centre in Zurich, which campaigns for a better work-life balance in business and society. «On the one hand, there are financial considerations. On the other hand, role models are firmly anchored in our minds.»
For many fathers, new and old ideals of masculinity collide: the caring family man and the hard-working employee.
Even today, many men still consciously or unconsciously see themselves as breadwinners who want to be present in family life, but for whom work commitments take priority. «Men in particular, who aspire to be both breadwinners and involved fathers at the same time, have to struggle with stress,» says Tobias Oberli, 44, himself the father of three children aged 5 to 11 and employed as a counsellor at the specialist centre 60 per cent of the time with two days off a week. «Mental load is not a gender issue, it affects both men and women,» he says about the mental strain of feeling responsible for all the day-to-day household and family tasks.
As the study by the Solothurn University of Applied Sciences shows, old and new ideals of masculinity collide for many fathers: the hard-working employee, always available and full of vigour, and the caring family man. The sociologists describe fathers' approach of reserving new time slots for the family within the framework of flexitime models as a «niche strategy» - without cutting back on working hours. Or they use home office to catch up on missed work in the evening or at the weekend. According to the researchers, they are fathers who «show a strong emotional bond with the child - without questioning the mother's primacy of care».
The second category of fathers reserves fixed blocks of time for the family, preferably a specific day of the week. This may or may not be linked to a reduction in working hours. In Tobias Oberli's experience, the most common of the non-traditional family models are those «with a daddy day». On these days, the children spend time exclusively with their dad and mum is absent.
«My wife herself wanted to return to work soon,» says Alain Mazenauer, explaining his family situation. Financial reasons did not play a role in her considerations. She prioritised the balance of childcare. He also takes care of household chores on his daddy day, but on the other days these are largely left to his wife.
Alain Mazenauer is a qualified mechanical engineer and head of department at a global industrial company in Baden - in other words, a part-time manager. «I think I've set a precedent in my company,» says the 40-year-old. He was the first male manager to work part-time. There are more and more colleagues at work who want to do the same, and many jobs at the company are now advertised as 80 per cent jobs as an option.
Mazenauer confessed his wish to his line manager at the mid-year meeting. Many thoughts had gone through his head beforehand. «I was afraid of the interview,» recalls Alain Mazenauer, «but then I was pleasantly surprised.» His line manager, himself a father, immediately agreed. «He said he would have liked to have done it the same way and taken more time for his daughter.»
80 per cent employment with 120 per cent work
Reduce your workload and then enjoy stress-free family time? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. In the experience of Diana Baumgarten, a researcher at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Basel, part-time work is often misunderstood by employers. «They often say: 80 per cent employment for 120 per cent work,» she says.
«It's true,» confirms Alain Mazenauer, «my contract states 32 hours a week, but I work significantly more. I work full throttle for four days.» Tuesdays to Fridays are often long and intensive days, but he insisted from the outset that Mondays are set as days off and are sacrosanct. «I suggested distributing part of my team to other managers,» he says. His boss accepted this idea. The bottom line is that everyone involved is happy with the situation. Mazenauer: «And for me, it's a very good feeling to know that I'm an important carer for our son.»
Men are afraid of not being seen as performance-orientated.
Markus Gygli, Vice President of the association Männer.ch
The women's magazine «Annabelle» recently published a survey among women. Many mothers prefer to divide childcare between the partners in such a way that fathers work 80 per cent of the time and mothers slightly less, preferably 50 per cent. The latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that men are increasingly working part-time.
The figures are rising slowly but steadily year on year. In 2020, 45,900 men worked part-time in Switzerland, which is 1,600 more than in the previous year and 15,200 more than in 2010. Markus Gygli from Bern, Vice President of the association Männer.ch, sees this as positive and calls for the legal conditions to be interpreted in the direction of parity. «Regardless of gender, it should be easier for both parents to reduce their workload,» says Gygli. «Couples should be able to split their time equally.» Only then will it be possible to share the burden fairly.
Many cannot afford to reduce their workload
In some cantons, employees already have the right to reduce their working hours by 10 to 20 per cent. But this is still the exception. A fundamental challenge for Switzerland is the revision of role models, says the 53-year-old. «Men are afraid of not being seen as performance-orientated.» Part-time management models for men are still rare. Unfortunately, the social reality is also that part-time jobs are «a luxury that many families cannot afford».
Gygli would like the state to prioritise parents and their importance for the country more strongly. Daycare centres should not cost anything. Parental leave models, subsidised by the state as in Germany, would help in his view.
He himself works on a 60% basis as an organisational developer at SBB and is still partly self-employed. He believes it is important for women's career prospects that men reduce their working hours even more frequently so that women can return to work at a higher rate after maternity leave. Employers would then also have a greater interest in investing equally in the careers of both genders.
Curiously, however, fathers in Switzerland are actually less likely to be employed part-time (12 per cent) than the rest of the men (around 18 per cent). According to the study by Diana Baumgarten and colleagues, starting a family often helps to stabilise professional careers. «Most fathers - regardless of their partner's employment pattern - remain one hundred per cent in employment throughout the entire family phase.» There are studies in which fathers were asked in which area they would want to invest more if they had more time available. The result: work. So do fathers really want to be more involved at home or are they just pretending to be?
Tobias Oberli from the UND specialist centre says: «I'm not so happy with this question.» After all, there are also other studies. You can't talk about «the men» and «the fathers» either; wishes and ideas are individual. It is more difficult for men to realise a reduction in working hours. They often have to «enforce» this. Whereas an entitlement for women, especially mothers, is an unwritten law in almost all sectors. However, this is often associated with a loss of professional and personal responsibility.
Long common in some professions
René Kuster from Gommiswald in the canton of St. Gallen is one of those fathers who consciously live parity, both professionally and privately. «I've always been half at home,» says the 40-year-old. His son is now eleven years old. They have been living separately as parents for several years and practise alternating custody. Everyday tasks, household chores and childcare are taken for granted by both of them.
René Kuster reduced his working hours to 70 per cent immediately after the birth. «There were never any negative reactions to my part-time job from those around me,» he says. «On the contrary, the feedback was consistently positive.» School social workers would often work a maximum of 80 per cent anyway because they are employed under the annual working hours model and therefore have the school holidays free.
Diana Baumgarten from the Centre for Gender Studies shares the impression that part-time working models have become commonplace for men in some occupational groups. In other sectors, however, it is apparently all the more difficult for men to establish part-time work. Many fathers interviewed by Baumgarten associated good fatherhood «primarily with the time a father can spend with his child».
Men's counsellor Lu Decurtins from Zurich believes that the biggest obstacle on the path to greater equality in housework and childcare is the persistent pay inequality between the sexes. «It's a total grievance,» says the 57-year-old. This is why young families are opting for old role models: The woman stays at home, the man goes out to earn more money.
Men create their own mental blocks, even today.
Lu Decurtins, men's counsellor
Decurtins warns men against giving in to the expectations of conservative employers and working full-time, even though they long for family time. For such fathers, a divorce could result in «the biggest belly landing they have ever experienced». This is because those who have previously made little contribution to childcare may not be able to do so later on either.
Just a few years ago, some young fathers were downright afraid of taking on family work, Lu Decurtins recalls. «A father came to me for advice and always hung up the sheets on the washing line in the garden first so that he could hide from the neighbours with the rest of the laundry,» says Decurtins, himself the father of three now grown-up children and a part-time man for many years.
Men created their own mental blocks, even today. The coronavirus pandemic gives Lu Decurtins hope that fathers in particular will better recognise the value of family time thanks to the experience of working from home. But this still needs to be proven, he adds sceptically. His message to anyone who feels the desire to work part-time but fears the question: «If a man wants to, it's possible.»
