Between Two Worlds of Father Politics: USA or Sweden?

The 'two worlds' model shows that the USA and Sweden represent two ends on an international continuum in ways of understanding fatherhood. Between two worlds of father politics represents America and Sweden as divergent and internationally influential 'father regimes' or as 'two worlds' of fatherhood. The book offers students a critical analytical framework for ways of thinking about fatherhood and new insights into why some welfare states have 'father-friendly' social policies and why others do not. It makes an original contribution to the growing fields of welfare regime and gender studies by linking the epochal decline of patriarchal fatherhood to welfare state expansion over the course of the twentieth century. In this way, the book raises increasingly relevant questions about gender equality and the declining global legitimacy of the rule of fathers' over boys and girls. It will be of interest to readers in the fields of social policy, gender studies, sociology, family policy and child-development and especially those interested in the field of comparative social policy. As well raising questions about the legitimacy of religiously inspired neo-patriarchy, the book offers new theories about gender equality as a driver of welfare state development.