Men Locked in Traditional Gender Roles and Identities: Identifying the Obstacles for the Promotion of Caring Masculinities

Presenter

Vanessa Cunha

Vanessa Cunha is a sociologist and a PhD research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa). She has been developing two lines of research: one on low fertility, childbearing postponement, reproductive decisions and parenting; and another on work-life balance, public policies, gender equality and masculinities. She was team member of several projects, including “Men’s Roles in a Gender Equality Perspective” (EEA Grants, Programme Area PT07), and currently she coordinates “PARENT – Childbearing and Parenting in the context of low fertility, family change and the economic crisis”. In addition to research activities, she is a teacher in an Inter-University PhD in Sociology (OpenSoc), coordinates the Thematic Section Families and the Life Course of the Portuguese Sociological Association, and coordinates the Observatory on Families and Family Policies (OFAP).
She recently co-authored: WHITE PAPER Men and Gender Equality in Portugal (Wall et al. 2017); “Why are caring masculinities so difficult to achieve? Reflections on men and gender equality in Portugal” (Cunha et al. 2018); “Negotiating work-life balance, gender equality and parenting: drivers and ambivalences in dual-earner/dual-carer couples” (Cunha & Marinho 2018); “The gender(ed) division of labour in Europe: patterns of practices in 18 EU countries” (Cunha & Atalaia 2019); “Portugal” (Wall, Cunha & Marinho 2020), a chapter from the book edited by Deutsch and Gaunt, Creating Equality at Home: how 25 couples around the world share housework and childcare.