Household Labor as Care: Care Practices and Gender among Swedish Couples expecting their First Child

The aim of this article is to provide an alternative way to understand gender equality. The division of household labor between Swedish couples expecting their first child is in this article analyzed in terms of caring practices (Fisher & Tronto 1990; Tronto 1993, 2013) instead of as chores that can be distributed. This made it possible to identify intra-relational caring practices within the couples that sometimes clash with the ever present ‘third party; the state and its gender equality discourse. Both expectant mothers and fathers practice all forms of care, although not to an equal extent. Besides gender, pregnancy difficulties and health problems are circumstances that affect caring practices in this context. As part of a longitudinal study, 25 individual qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals in heterosexual couples expecting their first child. The interview material was analyzed thematically, which aimed to identify, describe, and analyze patterns of care in the data. It is argued that these pre-natal care practices affect how the participants shape their ideas about what gender-equal parenting is, beyond or together with this third party and its gender equality policies and discourses.