Finnish men and their masculinity in long term intermarriages

1. Finnish men and their masculinity in long term intermarriages Hannu Sirkkilä Doctor of Social Sciences, Principal Lecturer Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland

2. Hannu Sirkkilä 2005. Breadwinner or eroticism. How Finnish men legitimatize their partnerships with Thai women. • 18 Finnish men (thematic interviews) • Motives to Thailand, to Thai women • Beginning • Reality of partnership, homework, problems • Opinions on their wives • Legitimatization of their partnership

3. Marriages of finnish men and foreign women in 1996-2005 Citizenship 1996 1999 2002 2005 1996-2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Russia445 635 467 462 5176 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Estonia175 247 201 109 1796 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand 78 131 164 293 1618 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sweden 40 34 43 53 440 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Vietnam 22 48 29 62 339 ----------------------------------------------------------------

4. The aim of research Finnish men who have wife from: • Estonia • Russia • Thailand Their long term marriage (more than five years?) Their masculinity and men´s practices (Pringle Pease 2001)

5. Research question “How long term intermarriages are possible and what kind competences as men these Finnish men need so that their marriage with a foreign woman is possible” (Cross-cultural marriage is often defined a priori as ´problematic´, Breger & Hill 1998)

6. Global hypergamy Marriage exchange in which women marry into families of higher social status than their own (Constable 2005)

7. Critical men’s studies • The partnerships of Finnish men with foreign women are an indication of changes in manhood and masculinity • Manhood has become individualized, which implies diverse opportunities to fulfil one’s masculinity

8. Formation of partnerships • Global gender system (Connell 2000) • Global gender market and patriarchal structures (Holter 1997) • Post-modern “pure relationships” (Giddens 1994) • (national) Gender contract (Hirdman 1988) >> dual breadwinner society • Intergender relationships and division of work in the everyday life between the spouses >> family practices: ”doing family” (Morgan 1999; Silva & Smart 1999)

9. Kirsten Refsing (1998) - all marriages cross-cultural: bring together the different cultural worlds and experiences of men and women - cross-cultural marriage: different ideas of male and female gender roles - success: negotiation of a new kind of gender complementary

10. Gender reflexivity Reflexivity is a habit of gender in late modernity (Adkins 2003) Reflection: Skills and actions where individual assess his/her own life, chooses and possibilities in some context of things (here: gender) with a distance from oneself (Jokinen 2005)

11. Models of gender habit reflection 1) The model of conventional practices • the roles and habits of gender are stable and without critical opinions 2) Consciousness of gender roles and habits (and differences) 3) Gender reflection without equality acts 4) Conscious gender reflection with equality acts (Jokinen 2005)

12. Interview questions • First meeting • Beginning period • Ideas of family and relationship (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim 2002) • Division of housework • (Nordic) Dual breadwinner family • Difficulties, skills to win them • Hybrid culture and family identity • What kind of a man

13. Narratives of successful partnership What men tell about their partnership: • Periods • Problems • Progress • Competences How they tell: • The story as whole • Their activity, role