Fatherhood, fathering and fathers

The purpose of this research is to point out a model of fatherhood among some haredi families in Israel that deviates from stereotypes about parenting in traditional or fundamentalist societies. These fathers are intensely involved with the upbringing of their children and with domestic chores. But in order to navigate societal pressures both from within the haredi community and from general Israeli society, these fathers tend to conceal this involvement.
Parental roles are expected to be highly hierarchical in societies governed by tradition with men serving as breadwinners who spend much of their time outside the home while women are responsible for domestic chores and childrearing. However, due to unique circumstances created in Israel, large numbers of haredi families have chosen a model of parenthood in which the mother is the primary breadwinner while the father willingly takes on chores considered to be motherly according to traditional stereotypes.
Interviews were conducted with twenty families in which the husband is a full time yeshiva (kolel) scholar who spends many hours of the day at home and with the children while the wife is the sole breadwinner. All families had at least three children. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out with these yeshiva students’ wives and with mothers of yeshiva fathers. Analysis of the texts rests on the qualitative method and adopts a phenomenological approach.

This paper outlines a theory explaining why the provider role is important to boys in the development of their masculine identity. The family is a primary site for identity formation, and boys appear to be more badly affected by growing up in non-intact families than girls. Female identity is more marked by biological transitions (e.g. pregnancy), and gives mothers a more central role within the family than fathers. Thus the male role within the family – the provider role-needs to be socially and culturally constructed. Where the father is absent and the role is devalued, transition from boyhood to manhood is made difficult, and masculinity may be problematized as 'hegemonic', 'toxic', and 'hyper'. Solutions from traditional cultures are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extensively report the implications of the global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population. The experiences of childless men are mostly absent from gerontological, psychological, reproduction, and sociological, research. These disciplines have mainly focussed on family formation and practices, whilst the fertility intentions, history, and experience of men have been overlooked. Not fulfilling the dominant social status of parenthood provides a significant challenge to both individual and cultural identity. Distress levels in both infertile men and women have been recorded as high as those with grave medical conditions. Design/methodology/approach The aim of this paper is to provide some insight into the affect involuntarily childless has on the lives of older men. This auto/biographical qualitative study used a pluralistic framework drawn from the biographical, feminist, gerontological, and life course approaches. Data were gathered from in-depth semi-structured biographical interviews with 14 self-defined involuntary men aged between 49 and 82 years from across the UK. A broad thematic analysis highlighted the complex intersections between involuntary childlessness and agency, biology, relationships, and socio-cultural structures. Findings Diverse elements affected the men’s involuntary childlessness: upbringing, economics, timing of events, interpersonal skills, sexual orientation, partner selection, relationship formation and dissolution, bereavement, and the assumption of fertility. The importance of relationship quality was highlighted for all the men: with and without partners. Quality of life was affected by health, relationships, and social networks. Awareness of “outsiderness” and a fear of being viewed a paedophile were widely reported. Research limitations/implications This is a study based on a small self-selecting “fortuitous” sample. Consequently care should be taken in applying the findings to the wider population. Originality/value Health and social care policy, practice and research have tended to focus on family and women. The ageing childless are absent and excluded from policy, practice, and research. Recognition of those ageing without children or family is urgent given that it is predicted that there will be over two million childless people aged 65 and over by 2030 (approximately 25 per cent of the 65 and over population). The consequences for health and social care of individuals and organisations are catastrophic if this does not happen.

‫פלג-בנימיני‬ ‫תמר‬ ‫לשון:‬ ‫עריכת‬ www.resling.co.il 64736 ‫אביב‬ ‫תל‬ ,3 ‫בן-אבי‬ ‫איתמר‬ ‫רסלינג,‬ 03-6956704 ‫טל:‬ ‫אביב‬ ‫תל‬ ‫בע"מ,‬ ‫חדקל‬ ‫בדפוס‬ ‫נדפס‬ ‫רסלינג‬ ‫להוצאת‬ ‫שמורות‬ ‫הזכויות‬ ‫כל‬ © 2009 ‫בישראל,‬ ‫נדפס‬ ‫העניינים‬ ‫תוכן‬ 7 / ‫תודות‬ 9 / ‫השמימית‬ ‫וירושלים‬ ‫החיים‬ ‫הקדמה‬ ‫הקפיצה‬ -‫הסמלי‬ ‫הסדר‬ ‫והולדת‬ ‫הקלינית‬ ‫ההתנסות‬ ‫א‬ ‫פרק‬ 27 / ‫ב-3591‬ ‫לאקאן‬ ‫של‬ ‫התיאורטית‬ ‫החזרה‬ ‫של‬ ‫מוקדם‬ ‫דגם‬ -(1938) ‫משפחתיים'‬ ‫'תסביכים‬ ‫ב‬ ‫פרק‬ 69 / ‫האב‬ ‫הפשטת‬ ‫ושל‬ ‫לפרויד‬ 117 / ‫לאקסטימיות‬ ‫דואליזם‬ ‫בין‬ -‫ללוגוס‬ ‫החזרה‬ ‫ג‬ ‫פרק‬ 155 / ‫המאיימת‬ ‫הקרבה‬ -(1) ‫יונג‬ ‫עם‬ ‫לאקאן‬ ‫ד‬ ‫פרק‬ ‫היהודית-‬ ‫והמסורת‬ ‫ביניהם‬ ‫ההבדלה‬ -(2) ‫יונג‬ ‫עם‬ ‫לאקאן‬ ‫ה‬ ‫פרק‬ 199 / ‫נוצרית‬ ‫לא-מודע‬ ‫מהו‬ -‫וטאבו'‬ ‫'טוטם‬ ‫בעקבות‬ ‫ולאקאן‬ ‫לוי-שטראוס‬ ‫ו‬ ‫פרק‬ 241 / ‫קולקטיבי?‬ ‫והעמדה‬ ‫הגדול‬ ‫האחר‬ ‫שם-האב,‬ -‫אהיה'‬ ‫אשר‬ ‫'אהיה‬ ‫ז‬ ‫פרק‬ 271 / ‫המקראית‬ -‫הנצרות‬ ‫של‬ ‫היהדות,‬ ‫של‬ ‫הפסיכואנליזה,‬ ‫של‬ ‫האתיקה‬ ‫ח‬ ‫פרק‬ 335 / 7 ‫בסמינר‬ ‫קריאה‬ 383 / ‫המאוחר‬ ‫לאקאן‬ ‫על‬ ‫דבר‬ ‫אחרית‬ -‫הבארוק‬ ‫עינוגי‬ 397 / ‫מקום‬ ‫מראי‬ 425 / ‫אישים‬ ‫מפתח‬

Advocating greater engagement between children’s and carceral geographies, this paper explores the spaces of parenting as they exist within a UK male prison, building upon criminological research on the effects of imprisonment on prisoners’ families and children. Focusing primarily on the visiting room, it extends discussion of the specificities of everyday material spaces and practices of parenting currently under scrutiny within children’s geographies and geographies of parenting, and brings these subdisciplines into dialogue with carceral geography. Concerned specifically with the intimate, embodied and sometimes banal practices of parenting in this constrained and highly surveilled context, it draws attention to previously overlooked spaces and identities of situated fathering.

The concept of 'patriarchal dividend' (Connell, 1995) assumes men's privileged position in the gender order, and implies that men have more agency in their lives than women. However, this article argues that when it comes to contemporary fatherhood, structural influences of employment and culturally dominant normative ideas about gender place fathers at a disadvantage. Using data from a longitudinal qualitative study of first-time fathers in Ireland, the article examines how the new fathers sought to reconcile the tensions between their role as fathers, partners and workers and offers the concept of 'patriarchal deficit' as a lens through which a new understanding of men's positions as fathers can be viewed.

Just before Sam died, his son Peter travelled from his home in Hawke’s Bay,
New Zealand, to conduct some preliminary research with his son Oliver who
lives in Leeds, Great Britain. With Peter’s interests in loss, post-traumatic
growth and transpersonal experiences and Oliver’s in theatre making,
performance and pedagogy they begin to discover that they share much
common ground. Shortly after their time together Peter travels to Moscow to
deliver a paper on Hamlet. What follows is a weaving of the thoughts and
recollections of three generations of men touched by loss, trauma and grief.

This article explores men's articulations and practices of gender through transition to first-time fatherhood. Using qualitative longitudinal data, men's antenatal intentions and postnatal practices are explored in this study which replicates earlier research on motherhood. The contemporary context in the UK is one where paternity leave, discourses of caring masculinities and more public displays of fathering involvement appear to offer new possibilities for men. But data analysis shows that whilst opportunities to disrupt gender norms are initially imagined, longer term practices can confirm 'patriarchal habits'. The findings illuminate gender being done and undone, at times simultaneously, as the exhaustion and hard work of new parenting is encountered. A retreat into normative behaviours can be a path of least resistance as experiences unfold in an arena where men are found to have available to them a wider repertoire of discursive storylines. Optimistically, some changes in fathering involvement are discernible.

To better understand quantity and quality of divorced father contact, a weighted county sample of 230 divorced fathers with a child aged 4–11 years was employed to test whether fathers’ antisocial personality (ASP) moderated effects of monthly contact with children in predicting children’s observed noncompliance. Eighteen-month latent growth models obtained significant individual differences in levels of noncompliance
and growth rates. ASP significantly moderated beneficial impact of fathers’ monthly contact. Fathers’ observed parenting practices significantly predicted noncompliance levels but not growth. Parenting did not account for the effect of Contact x ASP, suggesting both environmental and potentially genetic influences on child adjustment. Findings were robust across boys and girls and age levels. Implications for preventive intervention are discussed.

Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/car.2422/abstract
This article begins to build knowledge of how non-violent coercive controlling behaviours can be central to children’s experiences of domestic violence. It considers how children can be harmed by, and resist, coercive controlling tactics perpetrated by their father/father-figure against their mother. Already, we know much about how women/mothers experience non-physical forms of domestic violence, including psychological/emotional/verbal and financial abuse, isolation, and monitoring of their activities. However, this knowledge has not yet reached most children and domestic violence research, which tends to focus on children’s exposure to physical violence. In this qualitative study, 30 participants from the UK, 15 mothers and 15 of their children (most aged 10-14) who had separated from domestic violence perpetrators, participated in semi-structured interviews. All participants were living in the community. Using the ‘Framework’ approach to thematically analyse the data, findings indicated that perpetrators’/fathers’ coercive control often prevented children from spending time with mothers and grandparents, visiting other children’s houses, and engaging in extra-circular activities. These non-violent behaviours from perpetrators/fathers placed children in isolated, disempowering and constrained worlds which could hamper children’s resilience and development and contribute to emotional/behavioural problems. Implications for practice and the need to empower children in these circumstances are discussed.

Key practitioner messages:

- Children experiencing domestic violence may be affected by more than the physical violence perpetrated by one parent against the other.
- Children may be harmed by non-physical abusive behaviours inherent to coercive control-based domestic violence, including continual monitoring, isolation, and verbal/emotional/psychological and financial abuses.
- Responsibility for the impacts on children of coercive control-based domestic violence should be placed with the perpetrator (usually fathers/father-figures) and not with the victimised parent (usually mothers).

This assessment tool identifies contributing factors to presenting problems, identifies goals in counseling, helps form a therapeutic alliance, and deepens client insight into the story behind current difficulties. Simply completing this questionnaire can be a healing experience in itself.

This book, called “The Construction of Masculine Identity in Past and Present: Concepts, Methods, Perspectives”, is the first serious attempt to explore the question of masculinity in Czech historical writing. While women’s history, or gender history from a single-minded women’s perspective, has already become one of Czech research constants, the examination of masculinity and masculine identity still considerably lags behind the research done in other countries in the past thirty years.
Although there is an almost complete absence of primary research in the field at present, several themes presenting some starting thoughts and points of substantial value can be found in the book. The historical themes such as medieval masculinity, military masculinity or the redefinition of masculine and feminine identities in early modern period are accompanied by the sociological and cultural topics including the examination of the role of father in past and present, the reconstruction of gender roles in contemporary literary works and the role of gender in cyberspace.
From the methodological point of view, the majority of texts in the book are based on the theory of “hegemonic masculinity”, formulated by R.W. Connell and others during 1980s. Although often subjected to criticism, this theory proved its value throughout time and is still being widely accepted in the field of gender and masculinity studies, forming a useful theoretical framework and “a useful category of historical analysis” as well.
Several authors in the book acknowledge their affinity to the theory of “hegemonic masculinity”, to the concept of tight connection between masculine construct and social power. Other authors offer detailed case studies exploring the function of the masculine concept in various historical periods. Special attention spanning a number of chapters is given to the often neglected topic of military masculinity. Several chapters on fatherhood examine the underlying concept of patriarchy, while some authors concentrate on the body as a key part in the process of the masculine construction.
All of these texts in general prove that masculinity is, above all, a category that is unstable and malleable, always subject to assault, change, and renegotiation; a process at once of self-assurance, of self-control, and of self-doubt, whose capital purpose is to stay on top of gender hierarchy.

Rooted in two qualitative research studies of stay-at-home fathers (70 Canadian and 21 Belgian) at the beginning of the twenty-first century, this article explores the innovative ways that families seek to create workÁ family balance in two countries where relevant social policies are still focused on the encouraging of private family-based solutions to balancing paid and unpaid work. At the level of workÁ family policy, we note that both Canada and Belgium remain relatively weak in the provision of childcare, especially for children under the age of three, as well as in flexible working options that would allow families to effectively balance work and home. In light of these limited options, some fathers who have a weaker employment position than their female partners, or who are reconsidering their current careers, may opt out of the labor market for months or years in order to provide a private solution to an issue which still has little policy support. Nevertheless, while fathers are at home, they only partially 'trade cash for care'; that is, they also remain connected to traditionally masculine sources of identity such as part-time paid work, unpaid masculine self-provisioning work, and community work that builds on traditional male interests.

AIM:
The aim of this study was to investigate fathers' emotional experiences of their infant's preterm birth and subsequent stay in neonatal intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND:
When a baby is born preterm, there is also the premature interruption of the process of preparation for fatherhood. As a result, the impact on fathers of the preterm birth can bring negative consequences for the development of father-infant relationship.

DESIGN:
A multi-method approach was used which included ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews with fathers, a self-report questionnaire and clinical information between September 2015-March 2017.

METHOD:
Data were analysed using a mixed-method: a thematic analysis of data from the interviews and quantitative analyses to detect possible clusters of fathers' emotional experiences and associations between clusters and fathers' and/or infants' characteristics.

RESULTS:
Two clusters were identified. The "fathers-of-preterm-infants" touched their baby as soon as they were given the opportunity and without fear that they would harm their infant. They were struck by their baby's physical appearance. In contrast, the "preterm fathers" preferred not to touch their baby when first given the chance, for fear of breaking/damaging/infecting her/him. They were struck both by the baby's physical appearance and by the technology/equipment around her/him and were afraid that their infant would die. All the "fathers-of-preterm-infants", but only just over half of the "preterm fathers", were actively engaged in their infant's care. Clusters were associated with the infant's gestational age.

CONCLUSION:
Fathers of preterm infants should receive personalized support specifically addressed to them and based on the infant's gestational age.

La famille monoparentale, du fait de sa fréquence grandissante, constitue un autre type de famille à côté du modèle de la famille nucléaire. Se pose alors la question du bien-être psychologique de l’enfant et de définir les conditions permettant un bon développement de celui-ci en l’absence plus ou moins relative de l’un des parents. En introduisant la question du tiers et de sa construction intrapsychique, nous proposons un moyen de penser ces situations familiales du point de vue du bien-être émotionnel de l’enfant. L’évaluation de la parentalité psychique au moyen du paradigme de la présence/absence d’un espace tiers dans le rapport à l’enfant nous conduit à différencier une monoparentalité psychique d’une biparentalité psychique, elles-mêmes à différencier de la situation sociale (monoparentalité/biparentalité sociales).

Parental warmth is vital for child adjustment, but the expressive practices of parental warmth as gendered and cultural practices have remained understudied so far. The present study examines the expression of warmth among contemporary Chinese fathers who, based on inferences from traditional Chinese emotion philosophy and Confucian family ethics, have been typically portrayed as strict, stern, and inexpressive disciplinarians of their children. This study aims to understand the expression of paternal warmth in the backdrop of China’s drastically transformed sociocultural landscape. Interview data were collected from fathers, mothers, and children in 133 two-parent families in southeast China (girls  51.9%; Mage  9.54 years, SD  0.77), who were asked individually about how the father in their family demonstrated love and affection, among a variety of fathering behaviors. Thematically coded interview transcripts suggested that today’s Chinese fathers are willing to display parental warmth toward their children, contrary to stereotypes. However, Chinese fathers prefer nonverbal expressions such as by providing instrumental support or showing physical intimacy, whereas verbal displays of love and affection were not preferred. The children noticed and valued their fathers’ coveted expression of love through instrumental support and the use of an authoritative parenting style. These findings shed light on the nuances in fathering behaviors and processes in contemporary Chinese families and call for culturally informed reflection and revision of the conceptualization and measurement of warmth in fathering and parenting scholarship.

This article examines the duties and rights of men as the "siring sex" in the realm of reproduction from a progressive male standpoint. Men as producers and suppliers of sperm are part of the "human reproductive system." Recent studies have produced evidence of male-mediated developmental toxicology and reproductive hazards. Male sexuality as constituted now also has deleterious effects on men's mental and social health. More attention needs to be paid to male reproductive health. Reproductive rights were advocated originally as "women's right to self-determination." Men as the "siring sex" are obliged to recognize and honor women's autonomy. The fact that men contribute sperm to reproduction does not grant them the right to force abortion or delivery. The sexual asymmetry and inequality in reproduction precludes men from sharing equal rights with women in this matter. In order to overcome patriarchy and male domination, and to uphold gender equality and justice, men ought to fulfill their duty to respect women's rights and children's rights in the reproductive realm. To do so, however, men need certain resources and economic, social, and political support systems. This leads the author to propose that the state and society grant men the "rights to fulfill duties" as a new set of social rights, which should include men's (fathers') right to reproductively safe work, health, and environment.

Drawing on Hannah Hamad’s concept of postfeminist fatherhood, this article analyses how the animated films Chicken Little (Disney, 2005) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Sony, 2009) construct postfeminist fatherhood in opposition to two traditional stereotypes: the emotionally distant authoritarian and the bumbling pal. In contrast to films from the 1980s and 1990s, in which sons struggle to live up to their fathers’ expectations, these films demand a change in paternal attitudes, requiring fathers to adapt to their sons’ needs instead. The article argues that the films offer a didactic message to fathers as well as sons, which suggests that in postfeminist fatherhood older parenting models are no longer viable, and a new culture of fatherhood is needed, which is predicated on the marginalization of mothers.

The ideal relationship between the child and other family members has been evolving through time. In modern Japan, child-caring has been associated with motherhood at the same time as mothers were relegated to the domestic space and endorsed the role of full-time housewives (shufu). Men’s role as fathers was that of financial provider and became an absent figure.
The low fertility rate of the late twentieth century has contributed to encourage new perceptions of child-rearing involving both parents. Men’s involvement in child-rearing can be separated into two main trends. On one hand, men increasingly spend time with their children, although they tend to focus on leisure and socialization tasks. On the other hand, since the 1990s a new generation of Ikumen or nurturing fathers who fought gender roles, assumed the everyday tasks of feeding, bathing and nursing children, and ask for parental leave.
In this paper I will point at the new relationship between father and child as defined by the government and represented in the promotion advertisements produced during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The visual and contextual analysis of the most widely spread posters enable to point at the main characteristics of the model of fatherhood offered. What kind of relationship is displayed? Which children in terms of age and gender are represented? How to depict child-rearing in a “manly” manner? The government aims through those posters to redefine child-rearing in terms of gender, although I will show the ambiguity of redefining gender roles while keeping a traditional discourse.

Cette thèse porte sur les dynamiques identitaires et plus précisément sur l'appréhension et la présentation de soi en tant qu'individu de genre masculin lorsque celles-ci posent problème au sens schutzéen du terme, au travers de l'étude de la transgression des normes de la division sexuelle du travail opérée par les pères " au foyer ". La thèse s'articule autour de trois chapitres principaux. Le premier (chapitre 4) se centre sur les réactions d'autrui a la paternité au foyer, telles qu'elles sont relatées par les pères interrogés. Le second (chapitre 5) met au jour les stratégies mises en place par les pères au foyer pour gérer le manque de légitimité auquel ils sont confrontés. Le troisième (chapitre 6) propose une analyse phénoménologique de l'appréhension genrée de soi. Au travers de cette thèse, c'est une nouvelle définition de l'identité de genre qui est proposée. / This thesis deals with identity dynamics and, more precisely, with masculine self-presentation and self-definition when these become problematic. This is done through the study of gender norms transgression operated by "at-home" dads. The three main chapters of the thesis are the following. Chapter 4 is focussed on peoples' reactions to at-home fatherhood, based on the accounts of housefathers. Chapter 5 analyses at-home dads' strategies to deal with the lack of legitimacy they are confronted to. Chapter 6 proposes a phenomenological analysis of gendered self-definition. Through this work, the author proposes a new definition of gender identity.

“The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from
being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable fact of human
existence.”
                        Thomas Wolfe

A psychoanalytic look at aspects of Loneliness, with an emphasis on internal factors, further to those described by Melanie Klein, is presented. In particular, importance is given to Paternal Reverie as compared with Bion's concept of Maternal Reverie. Examples from literature and the TV series The West Wing are given, along with a brief clinical example.

In this culture, many people might assume that women are suited to the care of children in ways that men simply are not, whether because of biology or socialization. The fact that women typically feel wholly unprepared to care for their first baby, and rely on information and instructions provided in popular books written by "experts," may do little to challenge these beliefs. Andrea Doucet interviewed 118 fathers who defined themselves as primary caregivers for their children: some were single fathers, more were at home fulltime with their children, and a few were home on parental leave. Her main question was whether men who do much of the child care in their families provide the kind of care for their children that mothers do-whether they mother. This chapter, from her book Do Men Mother? examines whether and how men who care for their children, as a primary activity, take on the responsibility for their emotional well-being, as is expected of mothers. Her findings both challenge any assumption that men are not suited to do mothering and highlight the importance of cultural expectations that men display their masculinity.

This paper employs interviewing of and participant observation among laid-off and soon to be laid-off industrial workers to explore how conceptions of masculinity, fatherhood, and family are negotiated during the traumatic and transitory period of a plant closing. As economic globalization erodes the industrial base of the Rust Belt, traditional ideas about masculinity, fatherhood and family—including the notion of a sole provider or “breadwinner”—become increasingly impracticable. This study finds that industrial workers adapt to the realities of downward mobility by discarding elements of the “breadwinner ideal”while clinging to others, including beliefs about the American dream and fatherhood.