"Our day is nice." Meeting places for fathers on parental leave

In his PhD project ”Our day is nice”, Tobias Axelsson studied a certain kind of gender segregated setting for men only: social services for fathers on parental leave in Sweden, hereafter called ’fathers’ spaces’. Such fathers’ spaces may take place in open preschools/family centres as part of general parenting support.
The project studied the different meanings of fathers’ spaces for fathers of young children. Especially, the project dealt with the tensions, dilemmas and conflicts connected to ‘male only’ settings for fathers in general, and to Swedish fathers’ spaces in particular.
The empirical material consisted of policy documents, observations at fathers’ spaces, and interviews with fathers who have participated in such settings. Tobias Axelsson defended his doctoral thesis (in Swedish) När män möts som pappor: Fadrandets politik och praktik i det jämställda och pappavänliga Sverige in 2019.