Research on Father
Involvement
Editor:
Ronald L. Pitzer, (retired 2001) Extension Family Sociologist
University of Minnesota Extension Family and Consumer Sciences, Specialist
Research Report March 1992 (reviewed 2001)
There
has been an upsurge of interest in fathering in recent years, both on
the part of fathers themselves, many of whom are becoming increasingly
involved with their children, and on the part of social scientists,
many of whom have begun to take a closer look at the father's role,
interactions, and effects on his children. In the past few years, several
books and research articles on father's roles and relationships have
appeared. Selected portions of that research is reviewed below.
So
far, much of what is known about fathers' effects on their children
comes, ironically, from studies of children without fathers. Father-absence,
especially in the earliest years, is associated with many undesirable
characteristics and behaviors of both sons and daughters from childhood
and on through adulthood. A father's presence at home is, of course,
no assurance that the level of his involvement will be high. Where there
is fatherpresence there may still be low father-availability. And, indeed,
surveys show that the world over, fathers spend only a small fraction
of the time that mothers, even employed mothers, spend on child care
activities.
LaRossa
has provided an important perspective regarding the question of what
is happening to American fathers. Vast social and economic changes have
taken place over the course of this century and continue as we approach
the 21st century. In the wake of these changes, has fatherhood changed?
According to LaRossa, "Although the evidence is scant, it would
appear that the answer to this question is both yes and no. Yes, fatherhood
has changed, if one looks at the culture of fatherhood--the norms, values,
and beliefs surrounding men's parenting. No, fatherhood has not changed
(at least significantly), if one looks at the conduct of fatherhood--what
fathers do; how fathers behave vis-a-vis their children." (1)
Support
for this distinction between the culture and conduct of fatherhood is
provided by four somewhat recent studies, all which asked men and women
both whether they believed homemaking and child care should be equally
shared by husbands and wives when both spouses were employed and whether
such equal sharing actually existed in their family. The data is summarized
in the following table.
| |
Percent
who believe husbands and wives should share family work equally |
Percent
who report equal sharing in their family |
| |
Men |
Women |
|
| Harris
Poll (1988) |
67% |
87% |
14% |
| Hiller-Philliber
(1989) |
|
|
|
Housework
|
53% |
55% |
20% |
Child
care
|
80% |
80% |
|
| Rubenstein
(1990) |
75% |
85% |
<30% |
| Googins
(1985) |
74% |
|
13% |
Additional
support for and an interesting embellishment of this distinction between
the culture of fatherhood and the conduct of fatherhood is provided
by recent research. This research shows that blue collar fathers have
actually changed more in terms of their involvement in homemaking and
child care than have middle class fathers (including professionals),
when their wives are employed away from home. However, the middle class
(especially professional) males' ideology or professed beliefs (in short,
their culture) is much more egalitarian than are those of the blue collar
males. At least part of the explanation for this perhaps surprising
finding is offered by Ferree. She argues that, since it is not in men's
personal self-interest to initiate greater involvement in homemaking
and child care, any changes must be initiated by women. She further
argues that if women are to be empowered to initiate greater involvement
of spouse (and children) they must perceive themselves and be perceived
by family as sharing the breadwinner role. Such definition, she says,
is more prevalent in lower income families where the need for her income
is more apparent. In upper middle-class families, wives' wage-work can
still be viewed as a privilege rather than a contribution. (2)
There
are several additional explanations for the slow change in men's involvement
in homemaking and child care. Perhaps most important is that both men
and women have been explicitly and implicitly socialized into the assumption
that the domestic domain is the woman's domain. They have come to take
for granted (meaning the assumption is not consciously examined) that
the bulk of housekeeping tasks, child care, and household administration
will be done by the wife/mother. One consequence of this, according
to research by Ferree and by Hood (3), is that men are not aware of
the inequity (they just don't see how much time and effort their wives
expend on the domestic functions). Further, women tend to be reasonably
satisfied most of the time if they see their husbands doing "their
fair share" (and their perception of a man's "fair share"
tends to be based on what they saw their fathers doing). Most husbands
today are doing more than that, though it still is considerably less
than what women are doing.
Gary
Trudeau in a 1987 Doonesbury cartoon provided an insightful observation
on why men generally feel satisfied and comfortable with their involvement,
despite its inequity. J.J. asked her husband Rick: "I know you
love Jeff (their young son) as much as I do. So why don't you seem as
torn up about not being able to spend time with him?" Rick's response:
"Well, it may be because I'm spending a whole lot more time on
family than my father did. And you're spending less time than your mother
did. Consequently, you feel guilty while I naturally feel pretty proud
of myself." Trudeau is quite right about this generation of fathers
spending more time on family than their fathers did. Yarrow (4), in
her survey of 14,000 fathers, found that 81 percent reported taking
a bigger part in child care duties than did their fathers; 68 percent
said they spend more time with their children; and 44 percent believe
their children know them better as a person.
Another
obstacle to men's involvement in homemaking and child care is that many
men work for companies that do not make it easy to spend time with children
and have a career simultaneously. A survey by Catalyst, a New York-based
research group of Fortune 500 companies of employer attitudes towards
fathers taking leave revealed that 63 percent of the respondents believed
"no leave" was reasonable. Nearly half the 114 companies that
offered unpaid leave to fathers said men shouldn't take off any time
for parenting responsibilities. Ninety percent of those companies offering
leaves to fathers called them "personal leave" and made no
attempt to inform employees that such leave was available to new fathers.
(5)
A final
obstacle to fathers' increased involvement in childrearing is mothers'
ambivalence about that involvement. On the one hand, they are tired
and welcome help. On the other hand, many women seem to have concern
about (1) giving up their domestic power, (2) sharing children's affection
and attachment, (3) the way their husbands do the domestic jobs. This
point deserves some elaboration.
Perhaps
surprisingly, there is evidence to indicate that only a minority of
women seems to desire increased participation by their husbands in child
care, and that the rates are not appreciably higher for employed than
for non-employed mothers (6) A study (7) examining why more fathers
do not use paternal leave, found that a substantial number of women
did not encourage (and even discouraged) their husbands taking paternal
leave because they did not want to risk the child's bonding with the
father.
Multiple
interpretations of these results are possible. Polatnik (8) has explicitly
concluded that the home has been women's dominion and many women are
reluctant to relinquish or share control over the only domain in which
they have power. Others have also postulated that women may fear that
increased paternal participation would involve a loss of domination
in the family arena and would bring about a dilution of exclusive mother-child
relationships. (9) Mothers' prospects for obtaining custody of children
following a divorce might also be jeopardized when fathers have been
more involved in child care and have established close relationships
to their children.
These
concerns are understandable; mothers may not feel the same sense of
crucial importance to their children's development when child-rearing
is shared with another person with equal investment and commitment.
As long as motherhood remains a central aspect of self-definition for
many women and prospects for fulfillment in the employment arena remain
uncertain, many may fear the abdication or partial abdication of responsibility
for parental care. Those who do so may experience guilt, ambivalence,
or regret.
Changes
are occurring, fairly quickly and widely regarding the culture of fatherhood;
not so quickly in the conduct of fatherhood. As James Levine, director
of the Fatherhood Project at the Families and Work Institute, has said:
"Fatherhood is in the midst of an evolution, not a revolution.
We shouldn't be discouraged by the accordingly glacial pace of change."
(1)
LaRossa, Ralph. "Fatherhood and Social Change." Family Relations.
37(4):451-457, October 1988
(2)
Ferree, Myra Marx. "Negotiating Household Roles and Responsibilities:
Resistance, Conflict, and Change." Paper presented at annual conference
of the National Council on Family Relations, Philadelphia, November,
1988.
(3)
Ferree, op.cit. Hood, Jane C. "The provider's role: It's meaning
and measurement." Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48:349-359,
1986.
(4)
Yarrow, Leah. "Fathers Speak Out." Parents, September 1985,
pp. 91-94ff.
(5)
Select committee on Children, Youth and Families (U.S. House of Representatives.)
"Babies and Briefcases: Creating a FamilyFriendly Workplace for
Fathers," June 11, 1991.
(6)
Lamb, Michael, Joseph Pleck, and James Levine. "Effects of Paternal
Involvement on Fathers and Mothers." Pp. 67-83 in Robert Lewis
and Marvin Sussmann (eds). Men's Changing Roles in the Family. New York:
Haworth Press, 1986. Russell, Graeme and associates. "Work/family
policies: The changing role of fathers and the presumption of shared
responsibility for parenting," Australian Journal of Social Issues
23(4):249-267, 1988.
(7)
Schwartz, Felice N. "Management of women and the new facts of life,"
Harvard Business Review, January-February 1989, Pp. 65- 76.
(8)
Polatnik, M. Rivka. "Why men don't rear children: A power analysis."
Pp. 21-40 in Joyce Trebalcot (ed). Mothering: Essays in Feminist Theory,
Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allenheld, 1984.
(9)
Levine, James A. "The Work/Family Dilemma Not Just for Mothers
Anymore." Presentation at St. Paul (MN) Technical College, October
26, 1989.
