The Influence of Real Life and Online Peer Groups on Caring Fathers at the Transition to Parenthood

While the transition to parenthood is still linked to a retraditionalisation of gender roles, a small but growing number of fathers aims at taking up an equal or major share of care-work, and reduce their work hours or take parental leave to do so.

Our analysis of in-depth 20 interviews with fathers-to-be, bulletin boards and website shows how those fathers reflect, organize and perform this work within structures that (in Austria) still favor breadwinning fathers. Our data derive from two different pieces of work: a study on fathers on parental leave and a study on the “gendered transition to parenthood” (within the consortium FamiliesAndSocieties, funded by the European Commission FP-7).

Contacts to other fathers that are or have been in the same position play an important role for those “new fathers”. Some fathers already have access to other caring fathers within their peer group. Some try to find contact to other fathers through the use of new and social media. They attend “new fathers” groups on facebook, are members of bulletin boards that are crowded mainly by fathers, or use blogs and photo-diaries focusing on the fathering process. On these sites, they often share their opinions, the everyday obstacles they encounter being stay-at-home fathers, or happy times and events with their children. In our talk we explore how those communities help fathers to maintain their role as caring fathers, within sometimes hostile or non-encouraging environments. The ability to share their experiences interplays with their wellbeing, their persistence against structural disadvantages and adverse comments, and the quality of the father’s relationship to the mother and the child.