Involved Fatherhood as Interpreted by Czech Men’s Organizations

Steven Saxonberg and Lenka Formanková
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Steven Saxonberg: Department of Sociology, Södertörn University, Sweden
Lenka Formanková: Department of Social Work, Charles University, Czech Republic

Social Inclusion, 2026, vol. 14

Abstract: Drawing on the discourse on masculinities, this article explores the positions of Czech men’s organizations related to childcare. Recently, there has been growing attention to the idea of involved fatherhood; we show that one Czech men’s organization has indeed developed a caring masculinity that aligns well with the notion of involved fatherhood. The other organizations, by contrast, have expressed strong anti‐feminist sentiments, blaming women and female‐dominated professions for their losses in divorce cases. While these groups initially emerged to demand equal custody post‐divorce—appearing to endorse gender equality—they claim to support the “traditional family,” where the man is the head of the household. Although these views seem to be contradictory, we argue they are in line with the pre‐modern view of masculinity in which the family (wife and children) was the property of the man; therefore, it was no contradiction for the father to expect the mother to be the main carer before a divorce, while demanding custody rights after a divorce.

Keywords: caring masculinity; childcare; involved fatherhood; paternal care; pre‐modern masculinity; shared custody (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v14:y:2026:a:11105

DOI: 10.17645/si.11105

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