As we enter the second decade of the twenty-fi rst century, more than 30 years of sweeping changes in the work and family life of post-industrial societies have transformed the lives of contemporary men. In the United States (US), dual-earner homes far outnumber the once-predominant pattern of sole-breadwinning fathers, which now account for less than 15 per cent of American households. Similarly, employed women now constitute half of all US workers, and they vie with men at every level of the occupational structure. In this context, contemporary American men face a set of countervailing pressures and constraints. The traditional gender divide, anchored by a securely employed and well-paid man as breadwinner, is no longer tenable. Yet the social structures that reinforced this arrangement, especially in the form of a labour force that presumes undiluted job commitment, have hardly disappeared. Even though more egalitarian and fl exible divisions of home and market work have become more valued, equal sharing remains di cult to attain. This paradoxical mix of demographic shifts and persisting cultural and structural constraints sets the stage for strategies that are not just complex but also contradictory.