Exploring the caring of fathers in low-income, rural communities in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Early research on fatherhood in South Africa emphasize the prevalence of absent fathers and the detrimental impact thereof on families. More recent research on fatherhood, however, has shown a shift in fathering practices, where contemporary men engage in more involved and complicated fathering practices, which include nurturing and caring activities. Although local studies have begun to identify nurturing and caring activities in fathering, they have not comprehensively explored these caring ideas and practices. Furthermore, there has been a call for research providing more contextual knowledge on fathering practices across diverse groups of fathers locally and globally. This study, therefore, explored the ideas and practices of paternal care in a group that is especially under-represented in South African fatherhood literature. We draw on the data of fifteen families, each consisting of a father-figure, a mother-figure and an adolescent child. These 45 individuals were interviewed separately. The thematic analysis of participants’ accounts revealed complicated notions of paternal care. Although more contemporary caring ideas and practices of fathering behaviour were reported, these caring masculinity ideas remained intertwined with traditional hegemonic masculinity ideals. Nevertheless, these findings indicate that traditional ideas about fatherhood and masculinity have expanded to incorporate more nurturing, caring and expressive qualities.