Active Fathers in the United States: Caught Between De-Gendering Care and Caring Masculinities

Abstract

The United States occupies a unique position among OECD countries because the US provides little policy support for working parents. Despite the resulting extreme time scarcity, US fathers perform similar amounts of child care as European fathers under more family-friendly policy conditions. Using recent national time use survey data, this paper examines whether time scarcity among American working parents, coupled with limited access to affordable child care and traditional masculine identity ideas, is associated with American fathers’ involvement in the daily care of their young children. Results show that fathers do one third of all care activities, contribute one third of the care time, and perform over one half of the 10 activities analyzed here daily. Multivariate analysis indicates that time scarcity, lack of alternative child care options, and traditional masculine identity affect the degree of fathers’ involvement in daily care activities with their under five year olds. Implications for the development of caring masculinities are discussed.