Men in the private sphere – a fiction or reality?

Abstract

The problem of reconciling work and family life has always been the women’s problem. They often gave up work, stayed home on maternity leave or found only part-time employment. Is there a place for men in the feminised private sphere? Stereotypes that lock women at home and push men out of home cause damage to both groups. As the available data and results of earlier analyses show that men, at least officially, do have the same opportunities as women to take advantage of, for example: the availability of flexible forms of employment, but still very few of them do that. For this reason, men are still more likely to be seen as breadwinners than carers. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that in most cases fatherhood in the workplace is not to be openly demonstrated. Employers assume that the family life of workers (men) should not interfere with their work in the company.