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A rising number of fathers are putting new emphasis on family, curtailing their hours at the office or even quitting altogether to care for children.

The trend is breaking down biases that have long kept men from tapping into family-related benefits. Now, more employers have fathers who telecommute, take family leave and attend parenting classes.

"It's really a revolutionary shift in gender expectations," says Paula Rayman at Radcliffe Public Policy Center in Cambridge, Mass. "Men are saying they want to be in their children's life the way their fathers and grandfathers couldn't be."

More than 70% of men age 21 to 39 would give up some of their pay for more time with their families, based on a poll by Radcliffe Public Policy Center. In fact, they were more likely than young women to give up pay.

The number of fathers who are primary caregivers has soared. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more than 3 million children live with their fathers only, which is triple the number in 1980.

"I feel like I'm of service to my family," says Robert Jones, 39, of Tarrytown, N.Y., a stay-home father of two who left his part-time job in 1999 as a pastry chef. "I see dads with flexible schedules. They're home a lot more. It's much more common."

Deloitte & Touche has fathers who take paternity leave and use flexible work schedules. Merrill Lynch just held a seminar on fathers and adolescence that was broadcast to field offices.

When Charles Schwab held an employee session on balancing work and family lives, more men than women attended.

Several trends are driving the change:

* A tight labor market means employees feel more secure about asking for family accommodations.

* The rise in working mothers means fathers are assuming more of the child-raising demands and looking for help balancing priorities.

"Women's expectations of their partners have changed," says James Levine, co-author of Working Fathers: New Strategies for Balancing Work and Family. "We're in the midst of a very significant evolution."

* Generation X fathers have been raised in families where their mothers worked and are looking to be more involved as fathers.

"A lot of dads don't want the stress anymore of staying at the office until 10 o'clock," says Peter Baylies, 44, of North Andover, Mass., who writes a newsletter for at-home dads and left a programming job in 1993 to care for his two sons. "Now, a good family equals success."