Care-sharing Futures

This final chapter explores equal and primary caregiver fathers’ overall reflections on their journeys and future horizons, before outlining broader conclusions and recommendations from the Sharing Care study. Conclusions centre on the importance of circumstances in enabling fathers’ roles and horizons to change, and on the extent to which extensive practical involvement in caregiving had prompted further transformation in masculinities and fatherly identities. The authors also emphasise challenges and barriers faced by fathers that had sometimes placed limits on their caregiving and that centred on deep-rooted assumptions of default maternal responsibility that continue to manifest themselves in policy, practice, interactions and values. A set of recommendations on how care sharing might be made easier for fathers is outlined.