Experiences of Fatherhood in Lithuania: Persistence and Changes

Men’s studies is an emerging research area in many post-communist societies. There is a little evidence on the impact of the rapidly changing political and socio-economic context on the normative masculinity model and male identity. 

The paper is directed towards a study of how men become fathers (their perception of a family and man’s familial roles, motivations to have children, family planning practices) and what are the experiences of “being a father” (paternal involvement in childcare; communication and emotional ties with children; breadwinning and combining the professional and family roles). These issues are explored basing on the quantitative and qualitative Lithuanian data - the results of the questionnaire survey carried out at the end of 2011- beginning of 2012 (a sample - 2000 respondents, representing national population born respectively in 1950-1955, 1960-1965, 1970-1975 and 1980-1985) and the findings of the in-depth interviews with 23 fathers (representing of the same birth cohorts), conducted in summer of 2012 in the six regions of Lithuania. The investigations were accomplished in a frame of the four years research project „Trajectories of family models and social networks: intergenerational dimension”, financed by the European Social Fund (ESF).

One of research objectives is to follow the changes in men’s family and paternal roles by comparing the experiences and attitudes of generations socialized in two different historic periods – the soviet time and in the years of societal transformations after the collapse of communist regime.