Transformations: Gender, Reproduction, and Contemporary Society

Lecture 5

Masculinity and Fatherhood: Beyond the breadwinner role?

Caroline WrightTransformations: Gender, Reproduction, and Contemporary Society1Structure of LectureSociological significance of fatherhoodRelationship between doing fatherhood and doing genderDominant discourses about fatherhood The good fatherFear of fatherlessnessRedefining fatherhoodScience, technology and fatherhood

2Sociological Significance of FatherhoodExamining norms, practices and beliefs relating to fatherhood offers rich insight into: processes of historical change (and continuity)links between dimensions of social life: publicprivate, macromicro, policypractice, productionreproduction, structureagencythe (very close but non-linear) relationship between social representations, discourses, and practices (Wall and Arnold, 2007)mechanisms through which structural gender inequalities and particular gender orders are reflected in, and reproduced through, everyday lifecomplexity of relation between the social and the biological cultural specificity and intersectional nature of masculinities and of ideas and practices of fatherhood (Shows and Gerstel, 2009)

3Doing Fatherhood Doing GenderAs we have been examining, understandings of parenthood are both gendered and genderingMotherhood fatherhoodBeing a proper, normal, healthy woman or man is seen to require having a particular position vis--vis mothering or fatheringBeing a proper father (or mother) is seen to require key traits of proper (i.e. hegemonic) masculinity (or femininity) e.g. having a job and providing for the familyThus, parenting is a site for the production and reproduction of gender

intersectsclass ethnicityage sexuality etc.4Fathering is tied to manliness only as a demonstration of virility the ability to produce a child not as the [daily] conduct of caretaking and nurturing. (Dowd, 2000, p. 183)

Fatherhood as Proof of Virility

(and thus of masculinity)5Traditional Discourses of Good FatheringProvisionProtectionAuthority (Ruddick, 1997)

6Father as ProviderFather as principal/ only Breadwinner

Ruddick distinguishes between provision of money (distant provision) and provision of work that turns money into means of life

Where provision of money slips to mean all provision this obscures provision work that women, men, neighbours, friends may do

A good father is a working, earning father

Absent working father dates from separation of work-place and home in 17th century UK

Today the father cannot just be a wallet thats not parenting (Shirani et al, 2012, p. 36)

7Father as ProtectorFather as primary protector of his children, his wife and his home

Required to be strong, brave, responsible

Violence may be constructed as consistent with care

Women and children dont learn to protect themselvesSometimes its husband/father need protection from

Domestic violence leading cause of morbidity for women aged 19-44

Men can also be victims (16% in 2010 statistics since age 16, 28% for women)

Women more likely to experience domestic violence when pregnant

Privatizes protection within home not society

8Father as AuthorityAuthority, judge, disciplinarian of children

Man of reason vs. mothers emotion

Obscures fathers caregiving, nurturing

Mandate to punish children

Promotes idea that mothers cannot have authority, cannot inculcate moral values in children

Promotes moral panic about fatherlessness

9Fear of Fatherlessness

In UK and USClaim contemporary societydegenerating because of:- declining nuclear family - father absenceAbsence of father linked to:- lack of discipline- lack of role models for boys- boys failing to settle down as family man

10How do these quotes construct fathers (and mothers)?Tyneside 1991 RiotsSummer 2011 RiotsIt is the progressive liberation of young men from the expectation that adulthood involves life-long responsibility for the well-being of their wife, and 15 or 20 years of responsibility for the well-being of their children that is responsible for the crime-wave. young men who are invited to remain in a state of permanent puerility [childishness] will predictably behave in an anti-social fashion.(Dennis and Erdos, 2000, p. 4) The causes of this sickness are many and complex. But three things can be said with certainty: every one of them is the fault of the liberal intelligentsia; every one of them was instituted or exacerbated by the Labour government; and at the very heart of these problems lies the breakdown of the family.For most of these children come from lone-mother households. And the single most crucial factor behind all this mayhem is the willed removal of the most important thing that socialises children and turns them from feral savages into civilised citizens: a father who is a fully committed member of the family unit.(Melanie Phillips, The Daily Mail, 11 August 2011)

11The Child Support Agency (CSA)Launched April 1993Fiscal and legal attempt to re-attach absent fathers to their childrenAttracted protest from lone mothersMain protest from white, middle-class men: - Affronted by state interference- Resistant to feckless suggestion- Angered by association with shame and guilt- Accused CSA of being incompetent and unjustCSA beset with problemsReplaced in 2012 by Child Maintenance Service

12Redefining Fatherhood

ProvisionProtectionAuthority

Care-givingIntimacyEmotional labour (Dowd, 2000)

13Obstacles to Redefining FatherhoodNorms: contemporary hegemonic masculinity is still not entirely compatible with principles of involved fatheringDiscourse and Media Representation: caring for children continues to be portrayed explicitly or implicitly as mothers work (Wall and Arnold, 2007)Family and Employment Policy: parental leave arrangements can hinder or foster fathers involvement in childcare after birth and beyondPracticalities: eg. Breastfeeding (Week 10)

Structure of Labour Market: patterns of horizontal and vertical gender segregation and the gender pay gap foster reproduction of asymmetrical gendered parenting arrangements

Habits: Greater sharing is imagined but over time practice collapses into patriarchal habits that reinforce mothers as expert carers (Miller, 2011)

Workplace Culture: have their own system of norms and shape what is acceptable and possible (e.g. Physicians vs. Emergency Medical Technicians in Shows and Gerstel, 2009)

14Nurturing Fathers Performing MasculinityVisible display of nurturing fatherhood often paired with traditional masculine pursuits or qualities

This recognises that nurturing is still coded feminine and reinforces hegemonic and heterosexual masculinity (Dowd, 2000)

Another stay-at-home father is described as not fitting the stereotypes of the stay-at-home dad given that he is tall. . . husky . . . has muscles on his muscles and is a self-confessed jock (Mitchell 2000c). The article also observes that being a stay-at-home father did not mean he stopped earning money either; he runs a business out of his home while he cares for his daughters. That the masculinity of involved fathers needs emphasis in these articles points, on one level, to the acceptance of gendered cultural understandings of caregiving. That masculinity must be affirmed is a nod to the fact that warm, loving, and involved parenting and primary caregiving are still considered feminine (Wall and Arnold, 2007, p. 521).

Emphasis on autonomy may insulate fathers from intensive parenting norms (Shirani et al, 2012)15Government policy and educational efforts, workplace culture and practice, individual behavior and identity, and taken-for-granted cultural understandings are intimately interconnected.(Wall and Arnold, 2007, p. 512)

Interconnections16Science, Technology and FatherhoodNew technologies/ research reshaping understandings and experiences of fatherhood:

Ultrasound scans (week 8) have transformed mens relationship with pregnancyNew reproductive technologies (weeks 15 and 18)Men have a biological clock too Mens biology is affected and changed by parentinghttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14880055 BBC Four (2010), Biology of Dads: http://bobnational.net/programme.php?archive=32631&view=flash_player

17Rethinking Relationship between Biology / Society in FatheringThese kinds of findings:disrupt established binaries and associationsBiology/SocietyMotherhood Nature / Fatherhood Culture

foster reconceptualisation of hegemonic Western understandings of fatherhood genderthe necessity, value and naturalness of the gendered structuring of parenting arrangements(breadwinning, rational authority, less suited to childcare(Kaufman, 1999, cited in Wall and Arnold, 2007)

(maternal instinct, biological clock)

18ConclusionsGood fathering traditionally = provision, protection, authority/disciplineFear of fatherlessness is a moral panicRedefinition of good fatherhood being accommodated by hegemonic masculinitySubstantial obstacles to nurturing fatherhood, pace and extent of change is slowNeed to recognise differences between fathers, intersectionalityRecent research links mens biology with their fatherhood roles, challenging mother=nature/biology, father=culture/society binariesReminder: bring representations of fatherhood to seminar19