Fatherhood in transition: From standard to precarious archetypes in Italian contemporary organizations

In this contribution we analyse the stories recounted by fathers and their experiences in coping with gender cultures in their organizations. We briefly introduce the main results coming from previous researches, in which we identified three main organisational plots to describe how the use of parental leave is managed in the Italian context in the case of male full-time dependent employees. In order to analyse their experiences, we metaphorically referred to three mythological figures, the Titans brothers Atlas, Epimetheus and Prometheus. In this chapter we broaden our research interests, by considering the phenomenon of labour market flexibilisation and its consequences for non-standard employment relations, with a specific focus on fathers’ rights. The research shows that the practices of resistance to hegemonic gender models within organisations appear to be significantly different for fixed-term and self-employed workers with respect to those of fathers with a standard work arrangement, since the legislation itself denies – or makes no exercisable – their right to use the parental leave. To give an account of this emerging condition in the labour market, we make reference to a further mythological figure, Menoetius, the fourth brother of the Titans. While the other three brothers – Atlas, Epimetheus and Prometheus – survived to the war between the Titans and Olympians, Menoetius encountered a different fate. By leveraging on his story, we analyse the manifold and ambivalent experiences of fathers deprived of their rights at work.