Fathers who mother: A study of stay -at -home fathers in contemporary American families.
Item
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Title
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Fathers who mother: A study of stay -at -home fathers in contemporary American families.
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Identifier
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AAI3245047
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identifier
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3245047
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Creator
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Duffett, Ann M.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Individual and Family Studies | Gender Studies
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Abstract
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This dissertation research explored the general topic of gender by taking an in-depth look at parenting---a particularly gendered activity---through the eyes of married fathers in two-parent families where the mother is the primary breadwinner and the father is the primary parent. It employed qualitative research methods to provide a richly detailed account of the day-to-day lives of stay-at-home fathers, including: the social, economic, and cultural factors that make it possible for men both to become stay-at-home fathers and to continue serving in the role; the social constraints and challenges they face and the strategies they use to overcome them; and the ways they interpret, respond to, and give meaning to the experience of stay-at-home fatherhood. The fathers with the most success at legitimizing their stay-at-home-father status are the ones who degendered their responsibilities by altogether de-linking them from gender, thus eliminating the feminizing or emasculating stigma associated with them. In effect, they occupationalized at-home parenting by conceiving of it as an essential job that must be done to achieve a successful family life and good outcomes for their children. By separating at-home parenting from traditional gender ideology, they constructed a new reality where tending to children in this way was perceived as parental as opposed to maternal behavior. The findings were based on 35 in-depth, open-ended telephone interviews with stay-at-home fathers from across the country.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
