Attitudes Towards Care Work and Household Authority Among Married Muslim Men in Malaysia

This article explores men’s attitudes towards care work and authority through interviews with 21 married Muslim men in Malaysia who work full-time and are/were stay-at-home husbands or stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs). This study finds that both groups of men embrace caring masculinities but also masculinize care. The way they reconcile both models of care is influenced by how they understand Islamic discourse. SAHFs generally interpreted Islam to mean that care work and their role did not detract from their sense of masculinity. Interpretations of Islam affirmed a negative relationship between unemployment and a sense of masculinity for men working full-time. This article seeks to expand the geographic scope of Western masculinity theory by exploring how religion influences men’s attitudes towards alternative gender roles in a Muslim-majority setting.