Intimacy, Masculinity, and Relating

Abstract

Abstract The era of neoliberalism has made it more difficult for low-income men to be fathers, at the same time that the expectations for them to be involved fathers has increased. The norms and expectations of “father involvement” have changed rapidly within one to two generations, and yet the labor force and state institutions have not supported low-income families in a way to achieve this. In this chapter, the authors examine how fathers have adapted to these changing circumstances. They consider how the casualization of the labor force has structured the casualization of family life; the essential and yet complicated role that kin play; the neotraditional formation of the family and the “new father” role; the efforts to father through generational family violence and to address toxic masculinity; and the contours of fatherhood as men age into second-generation fathers.