Caring Fathers in the Global Context. Part I

Sociological research on fathers’ and their care practices has increased significantly over the past 20 years. This research shows that while men’s fathering practices have been under a slow but steady transformation towards more caring, intimate and emotionally engaged ways of being a father, in many families mothers continue to take on most of the care work. Despite the growth in research, caring fathers have mainly been studied in a global north, white, heteronormative and middle-class context, and amongst fathers of young children. Children’s perspectives on fathers’ care has only been given scant attention.

This session calls for theoretical and empirical papers to extend our sociological understanding on caring fatherhood. In particular, we welcome papers that examine fathers’ care from beyond the global north, and in more diverse family households. The following questions are some suggestions to guide the presentations:

• What are men’s practices as caring fathers in divergent cultural, family policy and work-life contexts around the world?
• How do men end up being ‘caring fathers’? What kind of pathways on caring fatherhood do men have?
• How are men’s opportunities to care and their practices as caring fathers promoted and supported in different social, cultural and family policy contexts?

Topics of the workshop are not, however, limited to the above questions, and all papers with sociological interest on caring fatherhood are very welcome!