About the project

Making Room for Dad: Shared Parental Leave & Contemporary Fatherhood�The ‘Making Room for Dad: Shared Parental Leave & Contemporary Fatherhood’ project has been funded by the British Academy / Leverhulme, who support research in the humanities / social science discipline.

The project formerly runs from summer 2015 until the end of 2017.
The study aims to explore the experiences of a small group of men, as they become fathers for the first time. 

Most men involved in the study will have taken the decision to share parental leave following the birth of their first child with their partner, taking advantage of Shared Parental Leave (SPL) introduced in the U.K. from 5th April 2015 (for more information about SPL, please follow this link). 
However, we are also keen to hear from new fathers who have decided that this policy isn’t for them, and to understand what has led to this decision.

So what do we want to find out?

  • What Shared Parental Leave means to fathers.
  • Is there widespread knowledge about the scheme, and how did parents find out about the scheme and make decisions regarding participation?
  • How parenting roles are discussed and divided up in the early stages of a child’s life
  • Men’s experiences and participation in antenatal classes
  • Men’s involvement and experiences of the birth of their child and hospital care
  • Fathers’ experience of, and involvement in, discussions and decisions surrounding infant feeding practices/childcare in general

To find out how you can be involved in our project please see the Get Involved section of the website.