Fathers who care and those that don’t: Men and childcare in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Fathers have an important role to play in childcare and when they are not involved, the children, mothers and fathers themselves are the poorer for it. Yet in many contexts we do not actually know either the extent or nature of father involvement. This article reports on a study that drew on data from a randomised survey of 18–49-year-old men in South Africa to explore levels of childcare participation and to analyse which particular activities men are involved in. The study showed that more than half of fathers take their parental responsibilities seriously. Over 80%, for example, help their children with school homework. A smaller majority (54%) of fathers talk to their children about personal matters and wash their clothes. Despite resource scarcity due to poverty, many seek to be present in their children’s lives. But this is not true for all men. Men who have good communication with their wives; who perceive their own fathers as kind; and who are generally more egalitarian in their gender attitudes are more likely to be caring fathers. Conversely, fathers who are violent towards women; who abuse alcohol; and who do not have gender equitable views are least likely to care for their children.

Keywords:

• fatherhood
• childcare
• gender transformation
• masculinity
• provider role

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Morrell

ROBERT MORRELL works in research development at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He trained in history and taught for 30 years at the universities of Transkei, Durban-Westville, Natal and KwaZulu-Natal. He edited Changing Men in Southern Africa (2001); African Masculinities (2005, with Lahoucine Ouzgane) and Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa (2006, with Linda Richter). He currently works with Raewyn Connell and a team of Australian, Brazilian and South African researchers on Southern theory.

Kristin Dunkle

KRISTIN DUNKLE is a senior specialist scientist specialising in social epidemiology within the What Works to Prevent Violence Global Programme. She holds a PhD in Epidemiological Science and an MPH in International Health from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States (US), and a BA summa cum laude in Biology and English from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, US. She has been working on violence against women in the Global South since 1996. She is the author of dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and multiple technical reports exploring the interfaces between gender, sexuality, race, culture, wealth/poverty, and health.

Umedjon Ibragimov

UMED IBRAGIMOV studied at the National Medical School of Tajikistan and at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, US. He has a special interest in HIV prevention and harm reduction. He has coordinated a national-level HIV-prevention programme and conducted needs assessments with opiate users and rapid assessment people who inject drugs in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Rachel Jewkes

RACHEL JEWKES is the Director of the Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit in South Africa. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health, Secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative and Director of the ‘What works to prevent violence?’ global programme’. She is the author of over 150 peer reviewed journal publications, and more than a 100 book chapters, reviews and technical reports. She is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Advisory Panel on Injury and Violence Prevention and Control and the WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Group on HIV.