‘Tough and tender’? Agricultural masculinities and fathering activities

ABSTRACT

The article is concerned with how hegemonic masculine activities comply with farming fathers’ caregiving to possibly change masculinity and produce gender equality. Based on interviews with farming fathers, several activities with children are narrated as part of their fathering practices, such as hunting, outdoor leisure activities. Being firmly within traditional male areas they serve to uphold hegemonic masculinity. This notwithstanding, combined with caregiving, they show a fluidity and hybridization of masculinity in which the ‘tough’ is combined with the ‘tender.’ The fathers also report avoiding prioritizing work at the expense of their children and that they do more caregiving in the home than previous generations, although mothers are still in charge. This implies blurring, but nevertheless conservation, of gender boundaries. A dismantling of rural hegemonic masculinity still seems to be a distance away.

KEYWORDS:

• Fatherhood
• farmers
• rural masculinity
• caregiving
• gender equality
• agriculture

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Grete Overrein and the anonomous reviewers of the journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Berit Brandth is professor emerita of sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Her research focuses on gender, care policies, work/family reconciliation and rural sociology. One central area of study is family, work and gender in a changing rural context where fathering, divorce and commercial homes have been research topics; another is fathers’ use of parental leave. Publications include ‘The co-location of home and work in two generations of farmers: what effects on fathering practices?’ (Families, Relationships and Societies 2017) and ‘Masculinity and fathering alone during parental leave’ with Elin Kvande (Men and Masculinities 2018).