Fathers and the Responsibility for Children: A Puzzle and a Tension

Authors

  • Andrea Doucet Carleton University

Keywords:

Caregivers, Fathers as caregivers, Family roles, Fathering, Social constructionism, Work-life balance, Work and family

Abstract

Drawing on a qualitative study of Canadian fathers who self-define as primary caregivers, this paper explores men's unique challenges to the gendered politics of unpaid work. While recognizing that fathers' narratives can widen our understandings of what it means to care for and take on the emotional responsibility for children, I also draw attention to the political and theoretical tensions that sit on the edges of feminist research on fathering.

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Author Biography

Andrea Doucet, Carleton University

Andrea Doucet is associate professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario. She has published widely on gender and domestic labor and issues of methodology and epistemology in feminist research. She is completing a book entitled Do Men Mother? and is conducting a new SSHRC-funded study on fathers' use of parental leave in Canada.

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Published

2004-04-01

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2004): Special Issue: Never Done: The Challenge of Unpaid Work

Section

Original Research

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