This essay has tried to find attitudes and experiences regarding involved fatherhood and parental leave. This has been accomplished through qualitative interviews with five fathers in Uppsala, Sweden. All the respondents were already on or were supposed to go on parental leave. In accordance with the aim of the study the interviews and the analysis proceeded from three topics: fatherhood and family situation; impacts from the daily environment; and effects based on their own fatherhood. These topics were constructed from the two theories that were used to frame the purpose of the study; the theories that were used were the modernistic gender contract (modernistiskt genuskontrakt) and hegemonic masculinity. The study mainly focused on finding what inspired the respondents to go on parental leave and how this differed between them. Apart from that, the study was supposed to find how and if the attitude of the respondents were affected by their local environment. Furthermore, the study intended to find how parental leave could change the attitudes of the respondents towards work versus family relations. The results of the qualitative interviews compared to the literature review showed that the respondents mainly chose to go on parental leave to strengthen the gender equality in the family and to build a stronger relationship between themselves and their children. The division of parental leave between the partners was mainly chosen due to practical reasons. Furthermore, the interviewed fathers got their largest influence from their own fathers and discussions within the family. Lastly, the parental leave gave the fathers a stronger connection to their children and a deeper understanding of having the primary responsibility for their children.

This work focuses on the question of contemporary forms of fatherhood and thus responds to the current discussion about the greater involvement of men in childcare and domestic work. This ongoing discussion is closely associated with the equal opportunities for men and women. However, existing research shows that in most czech families the traditional gender division of family roles, which disadvantages women both within family and work life and limits men in fulfilling their parentel role, still prevails. The concept of active fatherhood presents man as an equally competent parent as a woman who is actively and more equally involved in childcare and domestic work. Poromoting this concept should help to eliminate inequalities mentioned above. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, in support of active fatherhood, has conducted sociological research "The Forms of Paternity in the Czech Republic". The qualitative research carried out in this work is based on the research areas of the qualitative part of the mentioned research, specifically the part focused on the involvement of fathers in childcare and their ideas about the father's role. Conducted research tries to provide a more complete picture of the form of fatherhood through the inclusion of women to my research. The...