Whose Child is it Anyway? the Negotiation of Paternal Entitlements within Marriage

Abstract

Based on qualitative research, this paper suggests that among some married/co-habiting couples, where mothers are professionally employed and there are pre-school children, fathers seek to enhance their paternal role. This contrasts with previous research, which indicates that married/co-habiting men leave to mothers the responsibility for nurturing both maternal and paternal relationships with children. Using the notions of situational and debilitative power, it is shown how married/co-habiting fathers developed strategies for augmenting paternal rights. While fathers’ involvement with children was perceived as beneficial by some mothers, others regarded it as a threat to maternal status. The paper suggests that power relations between married/co-habiting parents in the sample are similar to power struggles between couples who are separated or divorced. The possibility is raised that paternal strategies to diminish the maternal sphere of influence among both married/co-habiting and divorced fathers may be symptomatic of wider male fears about the erosion of male hegemony. It is observed that the schemes employed by fathers in the sample to enhance the paternal role are similar to the approach advocated in policy statements of fathers’ rights activists.