Young people's reproductions of the ‘father as provider’ discourse: intersections of race, class, culture and gender within a liberal democracy

ABSTRACT

Despite a plurality of paternal forms available to men, certain enactments of fathering remain immobile. In South Africa the ‘father as provider’ discourse, which establishes the legitimate father as one who provides financially for his family, continues to be regarded as the primary mark of a good father. Using photo-elicitation interviews to interrogate the persistence of this discourse, this paper examines how adolescents from two low-resourced South African communities construct fathering. Using a critical intersectional discursive framework, the analysis focuses on how gender, race, class and culture are implicated in the reproduction of the ‘father as provider’ discourse. Participants’ constructions suggest that the father’s duty to provide is intensified within marginalised contexts. Central to participants’ reproductions of the ‘father as provider’ discourse was a neoliberal conception of ‘freedom of choice’. The paper concludes that South Africa’s post-apartheid reliance on discourses around liberal democracy has cast the low-income father’s ability to fulfil the provider role as a conscious choice. While the father is made responsible for his failure to provide, broader structural oppressions are in turn rendered largely invisible by such discourse.

RESUMEN

A pesar de la pluralidad de las formas paternas disponibles para los hombres, ciertas promulgaciones de la paternidad permanecen inmóviles. En Sudáfrica, el discurso del ‘padre como proveedor,’ el cual establece la legitimidad del padre quien es que provee financieramente a su familia, sigue siendo considerado como el principal marco de un buen padre. Con el uso de fotografías para questioner la tenacidad del tema,este articulo examina como adolescentes de dos comunidades de bajos recursos en Sudáfrica construyen la paternidad. Usando un discurso interseccional crítico como marco teórico, este análisis se centra en las formas en que el género, la raza, la clase y la cultura se implican en la reproducción del discurso de ‘padre como proveedor.’ Las construcciones de la paternidad creadas por los participantes reflejan las formas en que el deber del padre, es intensificado por los contextos de marginalidad. Los participantes produjeron discursos del ‘padre como proveedor’ como resultado de concepciones neoliberales basadas en la ‘libertad de elección.’ El articulo concluye con un análisis de las formas en las cuales la post-segregación racial (post-apartheid) crean un estado de dependencia en Sudáfrica que influye los discursos en torno a la democracia liberal, y la postulación de los padres en comunidades de bajos recursos que deben de cumplir conscientemente con el rol como ‘padre como proveedor.’ Mientras que el padre lleva la responsabilidad por su incapacidad de proveer para su familia, una amplitude structural opresiva se muestra lagamente invisibile como resultado de este tema liberal.

KEYWORDS:

• Fathering
• young people
• provider
• South Africa
• intersectionality

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Paternidad
• jóvenes
• proveedor
• Sudáfrica
• interseccionalidad

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge all the young people who participated in this study. We also wish to acknowledge the Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit which facilitated research in Community B and the community-based organisation (who cannot be named in order to ensure the anonymity of the community) in Community A. Lastly, we would like to thank Jesica Siham Fernández, from the Ethnic Studies Department at Santa Clara University, for the Spanish translation of this paper's abstract.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Helman is a researcher at the Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit.

Nick Malherbe is a researcher at the Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit.

Debbie Kaminer is a clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town.

ORCID

Rebecca Helman http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7730-0800

Nick Malherbe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4968-4058

Debbie Kaminer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6097-6211

Notes

1. Although we understand racial categories as both socially constructed and discriminatory, it is nevertheless necessary to use these terms insofar as they reflect the social and structural divisions and inequalities that are a legacy of South Africa’s apartheid system.

2. As Adhikari (2005) notes: ‘partly descended from European settlers, “coloured” people have popularly been regarded as being of “mixed race” and have held an intermediate status in the South African racial hierarchy which situated them below “whites” but above “blacks”’ (p. 468).

3. Due to escalating gang violence during the time of the study, it was not possible to hold an exhibition in Community A.

Additional information

Funding

This work is based on research supported wholly by the National Research Foundation [grant number 85499].