Selling fatherhood / selling gender-equality

Adrienne Burgess

Research ManagerThe Fatherhood Institute (London)

March 2009, Rio

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT

UK very low down on the UNICEF league table as a “good place” to grow up as a child

Highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe

1:3 children will experience their parents’ separation before age 16: HOWEVER • lone motherhood a “stage” not a “condition”• 50% of children in separated families see father at least weekly

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT (CONT).

Highly gender-differentiated leave entitlements: • 2 weeks (paid) paternity leave• 39 weeks (paid) maternity leave• no paid parental leave

Highest level of father-involvement in Europe, outside of the Scandinavian countries:• English fathers do 25-33% of child caretaking• 1972-1995 father-involvement increased 800% from 15 minutes to 2 hours on average working day.

Involved fatherhood an important social discourse(also in immigrant communities)

THE “DEFICIT PERSPECTIVE”

When men take care of children . . .

The Fatherhood Institute: historyThe Fatherhood Institute: history

Founded: 1999 (registered charity)Current team: 8 plus secretariat and freelance trainersLocation: across England (a “virtual” team)Original name: Fathers Direct (name changed 2008)

Funding: mainly ONE DEPARTMENT in government Described as: the UK’s fatherhood ‘think tank’

The Fatherhood Institute:The Fatherhood Institute: activitiesactivities: :

Research (to provide the evidence base) Policy work (changing legislation, policy and guidelines – national and local)Publications:• “how to engage” for professionals (capacity building)• for professionals to give to fathersTraining & consultancyMedia campaigns

The Fatherhood Institute: vision

The Fatherhood Institute works to create a society that

• gives all children a strong and positive relationship with their father AND any father-figures

• supports both mothers and fathers as earners and carers • prepares boys and girls for a future shared role in caring for children.

Child wellbeing

Maternal wellbeingPaternal wellbeing

▼SOCIETAL WELLBEING

Gender equality and fatherhood:

• Fatherhood is one of the few relatively easy ways by which one can talk about gender

• Active fatherhood should help achieve some of the key goals in gender equality

• more sex equality at work• more sharing of household chores• boys and girls more androgynous in their approaches to earning/caring• lower levels of DV/sexual abuse

Fatherhood Institute: our orientation

1. Fathers desirable, not essential2. Fathers’ value not dependent on male/female

DIFFERENCE 3. Fathers as important to daughters as to sons4. Fathers and father-figures not the same:

some cross-over, but children think about them differently and so should we

5. High father-involvement usually positive

BUT . . .

Fatherhood Institute: our orientation6. “Bad dads” very influential and therefore should

be engaged with7. “No dads” impact on children8. Fathers impact on MOTHERS9. Services cannot take a gender-neutral approach

to engaging with dads and hope to engage them10. Father-inclusive practice, not parallel services

for men/fathers, is the way forward11. Much of the most important work on

fatherhood is done not with fathers, but with children, mothers and the wider family

Discourses/issues we do not associate the Fatherhood Institute with:

1. Separation / divorce

2. Enlisting men and boys in the fight against gender-based violence

3. The “trouble with boys” 4. “Men in crisis” 6. Fathers as “role models”

7. Marriage

And we try

. . . . never

. . . . never

. . . . never

to be publicly ANGRY

Some examples of our work: research

Research summaries freely available on our website

Main Research Summary: ‘The Costs & Benefits of Active Fatherhood’ http://www.fathersdirect.com/index.php?id=0&cID=586

Fathers and Smoking http://www.fathersdirect.com/index.php?id=2&cID=579

Fathers and Breastfeedinghttp://www.fathersdirect.com/index.php?id=2&cID=581

Fathers and Postnatal Depression http://www.fathersdirect.com/index.php?id=2&cID=580

Young Fathers http://www.fathersdirect.com/index.php?id=13&cID=575

AND MANY MORE . . .

An example of our work: policy

STEP ONE: Get headline government policy documents to refer to MOTHERS and FATHERS not PARENTS

STEP TWO: Get the relevant government Department to audit how well headline policy is being translated into practice (FINDING – badly!)

STEP THREE: Government runs campaign to rectify this: “Think Fathers”

STEP FOUR: We ensure this isn’t the end of the matter . . .

An example of our work: practice

Some examples of our work: Materials for professionals to give dads

An example of our work: public campaigning – MATERNITY SERVICES

www.fatherhoodinstitute.org