Fatherhood in Contemporary Society

Abstract

Dollahite, D. C., & Hawkins, A. J. (Eds.). (1997). Generative Fathering: Beyond Deficit Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hardcover ISBN 0-76190011705, $52.00. Paper ISBN 0-7619-0118, $24.00. Lamb, M. E. (Ed.). (1997). The Role of the Father in Child Development (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Hardcover ISBN 0 471 11771 4, $55.00. Lupton, D., & Barclay, L. (1997). Constructing Fatherhood: Discourses and Experiences. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. 176 pp. Hardcover ISBN 0 7619 5340 X, $69.95. Paper ISBN 0 7619 5341 8, $26.95. Mackey, Wade C. (1996). The American Father: Biocultural and Developmental Aspects. New York: Plenum. Hardcover ISBN 0-3-6-45337-1, $42.50. Record numbers of children are growing up without a father's presence. Evidence from history and the social and behavioral sciences documents the disintegration of the child-centered, two-parent family, effects of father absence, and transformations in parenting. The loss of financial support from fathers to their children is viewed as a central cause of many of society's worst problems, including teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, welfare dependency, and child poverty (Popenoe, 1996). Large numbers of mothers in the work force have resulted in role overload for women (Daly, 1996), while women's requests for equitable division of paid and family work have brought about a reassessment of the nature of both motherhood and fatherhood and how each should be conducted in relation to the other. A fathering bibliography from a university human development department made available on the World Wide Web lists approximately 2000 citations. Most of the citations were published in the last two decades, with the majority of titles appearing since the mid-1990s. Although this number is not equal to the number of citations regarding the effects of mothering on children, the rapid growth of studies on fathering is indicative of a shift in thinking regarding the importance of fathers in children's lives. Diverse scholarly disciplines contribute different kinds of knowledge to the topic of fatherhood. The four books reviewed here, although selected at random, provide differing lenses for the examination of fathering in contemporary society. Viewpoints include the effects of fathers on child development; a sociocultural perspective which investigates the meaning and experiences of fatherhood; an adult developmental perspective, which examines functions such as motivation, sociability and intelligence; and a concern with the development of a new conceptual guideline for practical scholarship. Each selection offers differing facets leading to a greater understanding of the complexities of fathering. All, however, reflect the recent shift in family research toward the perception of fathers as major contributors to both child and adult development. Hawkins and Dollahite in Generative Fathering have connected the work from several disciplines and perspectives to develop a unified framework of fathering for scholars and practitioners. Based on the conceptual developmental work of Erikson and Snarey, Hawkins and Dollahite propose that fathers have ethical obligations to meet the needs of the next generation. Their framework is not presented as a model of how things are in the real world but as an intervention-oriented approach to suggest what is possible and desirable. The term they have chosen to describe masculine parenting activities is fathering, which emphasizes meeting children's varied and changing needs through what they term fatherwork. The guiding concept of this framework is that fathers have the ability and responsibility to choose involvement. Good fathering emphasizes meeting the needs of the next generation more than responding to societal expectations or changing social roles. Good fathering is hard work, but the most important kind of work men can do. Fathers and children's needs often correspond in that generative fathering is consistent with healthy men's development, as well as children's development. …