‘I play with the baby so that people can see that I'm a man’: Young fathers' involvement in the first 1 000 days of a child's life in South Africa

ABSTRACT

There is a growing focus on men's involvement in the first 1 000 days of a child's life (i.e. conception through to two years of age). Men's involvement is understood to improve child health and as a pathway to gender equality. We sought to understand the forms of care and support men provided during the first 1 000 days of a child's life in an urban informal settlement in Durban, South Africa. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 men and 15 women and three focus groups with men to understand men's involvement. Men and women described multiple ways in which men were involved in care and support during the first 1 000 days and reasons supporting and hindering this. In contrast to much literature that situates men's involvement in care as intrinsically gender equitable, we argue that while men do become involved in care and support, it is not linked to a wider commitment to gender equity. Rather it bolsters a relatively conservative understanding of masculinity, linked to the establishment of a household. Where men do not become involved in care, this is linked to men seeking to retain a more youthful masculinity. We suggest interventions working with men to increase caregiving need to engage around transforming gender norms.

Keywords:

• masculinity
• fathers
• informal settlements
• children

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Gibbs

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

ANDREW GIBBS (PhD) is a senior specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), Cape Town, South Africa, and an honorary research fellow at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. His work is primarily around masculinities, urban informal settlements, the role of economics in people's lives and violence against women.

Tamaryn Crankshaw

TAMARYN CRANKSHAW (PhD) is a researcher at HEARD, UKZN. Her work has focused extensively on relationships between couples and she is increasingly working on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Rebecca Lewinsohn

REBECCA LEWINSOHN is an undergraduate at Haverford College, PA, United States. She is interested in global health and HIV/AIDS globally.

Petronella Chirawu

PETRONELLA CHIRWA is currently at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, working on food insecurity across southern Africa. Prior to that she worked at HEARD, UKZN, on parenting and specifically fathering.

Samantha Willan

SAMANTHA WILLAN is the Capacity Development Manager of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls? Global Programme led by the Gender and Health Research Unit at the MRC. Her work has been on teenage pregnancy and is currently around reproductive decision making of young women.