The Changing Role of the Husband/Father in the Dual-Earner Family in South Africa

Abstract

In recent research studies that have been done within the cadre of Family Sociology, researchers have emphasised the fact that the role of the man in the family has become an important topic, as is evident in extensive public debate and scholarly inquiry. For several decades the focus in South Africa, as in the case of other countries, fell on the increasing interface between work and family life, within the work/family spillover model, as experienced by the working married woman and how her marital and familial relationships are influenced by it. While it is clear from these research results, especially from those studies conducted in South Africa, that most men are no longer the sole or primary breadwinner in the family, it is less clear which new patterns of commitment and involvement these men are developing with regard to their family life. In this article the focus falls on some of the findings from a resent extensive quantitative study that aimed to shed light on the man’s perception of his roles as husband and father in the dual-earner family and to ascertain to what extend this perception may or may not stand in relationship to his experience of marital integration.