Working-class fathers and childcare: the economic and family contexts of fathering in the UK

Abstract

This paper reports on a UK-based study that explored the ways in which working-class families living in the inner city negotiate and resolve childcare and domestic responsibilities between mothers and fathers and how men balance employment and family demands. Drawing on interviews with 70 families with pre-school children, including interviews with 16 men, we explore how the respondents practice fathering roles in their particular economic, social and family contexts, contrasting a group of ‘active fathers’ with those we have termed ‘background fathers’. The domestic arrangements for caring for young children identified in this study and an earlier study of middle-class families overwhelmingly follow traditional gendered divisions, irrespective of social class background. The pervasiveness of discourses that construe a ‘good’ family man as financially successful means that the men in this study, whose link to the labour market can be tenuous, are vulnerable to charges – by themselves and others – of not being a ‘good’ father. We suggest that beyond the provider discourse, there is a lack of alternatives to conceptualise possible understandings of being and doing fatherhood, which renders fathering an individualised practice, highly dependent on contextual factors.

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un estudio que examina las formas en que familias de clase trabajadora resuelven y negocian el cuidado de los niños, las responsabilidades domésticas entre madres y padres, y cómo los hombres combinan el trabajo con las demandas familiares. El análisis se basa en entrevistas a madres y padres de familias de clase trabajadora, con niños menores de 5 años, provenientes de dos barrios de la ciudad de Londres (Reino Unido). Examina cómo los varones asumen sus roles paternos en sus particulares contextos económicos, sociales y familiares, e identifica dos grupos de padres: los ‘padres activos’ y los ‘padres pasivos’. Al igual que una investigación anterior sobre familias de clase media, este estudio muestra que los arreglos domésticos vinculados al cuidado de los niños se organizan siguiendo patrones de género tradicionales. El discurso dominante asocia el ser un ‘buen’ padre de familia con el éxito económico, lo cual implica que los hombres que tienen ocupaciones laborales precarias son acusados de no ser buenos padres (por ellos mismos y por otros). Las autoras afirman que los entrevistados no tienen formas alternativas de conceptualizar la paternidad. Así, ‘ser padre’ es interpretado como una práctica individualizada, muy dependiente de los factores contextuales.

Keywords:

• fathers
• parenting
• social class
• working class

Palabras claves:

• padres
• paternidad
• clase social
• clase trabajadora

Notes

1. Parental leave in Sweden comprises a total of 13 months, 2 months of which are directly attributed to each parent, with the remaining 9 months transferable between the two. This system is considerably more generous and more gender equitable than the UK leave allowance, where statutory paid maternity leave is 9 months (since 2007) and not currently transferable to fathers. The UK Fathers can get up to 2 weeks paid paternity leave.

2. Stoke Newington and Battersea are neighbourhoods in the north-east and south-west of the capital, respectively, notable for the diverse social class mix of their residents (see e.g., Butler & Robson, 2003; Vincent & Ball, 2006).

3. One father was interviewed twice.

4. Sure Start is the UK Government programme designed to bring together and deliver early years, childcare and family support services.

5. NS-SEC refers to the UK Office for National Statistics occupation-based socio-economic classifications.