The Changing Roles of Mothers and Fathers - Assignment Example

The Changing Roles of Mothers and Fathers The traditional economic and social expectations of mothers and fathers have, to a great extent, been broken down in recent decades. New economic patterns have emerged, the primary caregiver can now be male or female, and new types of family unit have emerged. Nevertheless, as Scott (2006) points out, ‘that is not to say that heterosexual parent-child families with traditional gender roles have vanished. Rather, that this particular family type is now one among many diverse family types’ (p.2). The result is a situation where the roles of mothers and fathers within the families are being characterised primarily by their fluidity. Ebony (1999) makes this clear: ‘a generation of new millennium parents – mostly middle-class professionals – is blurring the traditional lines and writing new rules for child-rearing’. In summary, due to fundamental changes in the past half century, the economic and social roles of mothers and fathers have become interchangeable and flexible. Over the past half century or so, women have taken on a much more prominent role in the labor market, which has presumably meant a more equitable sharing of caregiving tasks between mothers and fathers, in those households where both parents are in residence. Amato (1994) was correct in proposing that ‘the massive movement of married women into the paid labor force disrupted the traditional division of labor within the nuclear family’ (p.1031). Indeed, he found that 67% of married mothers with children under 18 were in paid work, so that ‘mothers now share the breadwinning role with their husbands’ (Amato, 1994, p.1031). With the ready availability of effective contraceptives since the 1960s, women have been able to take full control of their reproductive lives, with many choosing to delay childbirth and starting a family until they feel that they have established a secure and successful career in their chosen sector. Additionally, the availability of widespread and affordable childcare allows many mothers to return to the workplace, sometimes soon after the birth of a child. The changing economic role of mothers is fully borne out in the figures. From 1948-2001, the percentage of working age women either in employment or looking for paid work rose from under 33% to over 60% (APA, 2010). In many families, the mother is at least as powerful an economic actor as the father, and often more so. For many, traditionally-prescribed gender roles and responsibilities have been dissolved, with decisions on the divisions of roles now based more on pragmatic discussion and economic circumstances. Elvire Vaucher, for example, a Canadian academic, commented that ‘Seeing as my salary is greater than my husband’s, we wanted to limit our financial losses so he became the primary caregiver’. As Vaucher herself puts it, ‘It isn’t more acceptable for the woman instead of the man to sacrifice her career for the welfare of the family’ (physorg.com, 2009). While it is true that some 60% of Quebec’s inhabitants agree with this statement, in Canada as a whole, 65% disagree. We can assume that in many other countries, acceptance of these new values is lower still. This lack of change in attitudes in some countries was reflected in some studies, although is probably less the case today. Amato (1994) cited studies which showed that ‘Even when mothers are employed full-time, they spend twice as much time on housework and child-care as do fathers’ (p.1031). We have established that the role of mothers is no longer, by default, as primary caregivers, and non-economic. Rather, it is generally acknowledged that they have as much right to engagement with economic activities as fathers, and that, where possible, it is desirable for caregiving roles to be shared more equally than previously. Clearly, these seismic shifts in accepted gender and familial roles have led to a fundamental realignment of the place of the father in the family. As the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010) stated, ‘ Today’s father is no longer the traditional married breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family’. Indeed, the APA (2010) summed up the flexibility and range of roles involved in the position of the new-age father well when they asserted that ‘He can be single or married; externally employed or stay-at-home; gay or straight; an adoptive or step-parent; and a more than capable caregiver to children facing physical or psychological challenges’. In centuries past, the father-figure has been the breadwinner, sometimes also responsible for imbibing moral values in their children. Through the period of the industrial revolution in the West, as employment was increasingly moved outside of the home, rates of abandonment and illegitimacy underwent a dramatic increase. As the economic role of mothers has increased, largely in the course of the last century, fathers have taken on a greater role in caregiving to children. Chris Conanan, an attorney for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, whose wife is an attorney in private practice, opined that, ‘I think that when you have two working parents, everyone has to pitch in and do what it takes to keep the household running’ (Ebony, 1999). One need only note the spread of baby-changing tables in men’s restrooms in recent years as proof of this trend. Research conducted by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that they tended to be more involved with caregiving when they worked fewer hours and mothers worked more hours (APA, 2010). Indeed, the APA also states that ‘the influence of father’s love on children’s development is as great as the influence of mother’s love’. Amato (1994) agreed, having carried out a sample of 471 young adults from across the United States, that ‘closeness to fathers makes a unique contribution to offspring happiness, life satisfaction’ (p.1031).It is now believed by many that fathers should be more active in caregiving, because it is fairer to mothers, and because it greatly benefits the children. The involvement of fathers in childcare has been linked to the children’s intellectual development, their social competence, and their ability to empathize. Flouri and Buchanan (2003) were even surer on this point, having gathered results from a study of 2722 British adolescents aged 14-18 years. They found that ‘although both father and mother involvement contributed significantly and independently to offspring happiness, father involvement had a stronger effect’ (p.399). These shifting roles have resulted in the growth of several new phenomena. The first of these is fathers who are not resident at the family home. In 2006, 38% of all births in the United States were to unmarried women - 6 times higher than in 1960 (APA, 2010). Non-residential fathers, unless they are able to spend sufficient time with their children, are at risk of growing distant from them. This is especially the case because after divorces, fathers tend not to be given full custody of any children from the marriage. This phenomenon has also led to the more common occurrence of the step-family, with perhaps a third of Americans belonging to a step-family. Another new mode of father is the stay-at-home father. Nothing demonstrates more forcibly the new fluidity of gender roles in parenting than the stay-at-home father. While they remain a very small proportion of all fathers (approximately 159,000 of 64 million fathers in the United States), the occurrence of this ‘new type of patriarch who is primarily charged with caregiving in the context of his family’ is growing fast – by 50% between 2003-2006 (APA, 2010). The decision that the father should stay at home and care for the children while the mother pursues a career can result from the high earnings of the spouse, or the father’s desire to be a full-time caregiver. That attitudes to gender roles within the family have changed is clear. As Scott (2006) found, one of the best measures of this is asking whether people agree or disagree with the statement ‘that a man’s job is to earn money and a woman’s job is to look after the home and family’ (p.13). The graph below (Fig. 1) shows cross-national trends in the rejection of traditional gender roles. In the second half of the 20th century, with the legalisation of homosexual relations, and the greater social acceptance of different sexual orientations, we have seen the emergence of families with two male or two female parents. Reliable ‘research suggests that they are likely to divide the work involved with child care relatively evenly’ (APA, 2010). While the emergence of gay parents does not strictly Fig. 1. Rejection of traditional gender role ideology Source: Scott, J. (2006). Family and Gender Roles: How Attitudes are Changing. Genet Working Paper 21, p.13. relate to the changing roles of mothers and fathers, it is an entirely new mode of parentage, produced as a result of our changing society. As well as gay parents, there have been other major changes in types of families. In Britain, as in most western countries, marriage rates are at their all-time low, to the extent that for every three weddings there are now two divorces (Easton, 2007). Easton also noted that cohabitation has risen by a striking 64% in a decade, while almost half of British children are now born to unmarried parents, with a quarter of children living with a single parent. These trends also reveal the dissolution of what might be called ‘moral values’ in the period since the 1960s. Our society has become a less religious, more secularized one, and so traditional notions of what was and was not an acceptable way for children to be raised hold increasingly little influence. Generally, therefore, marriage rates have fallen, divorce and cohabitation have increased, and there has been a drop in overall fertility. While Scott (2006) urges moderation, asserting that ‘the data do not support the claim that there has been a revolutionary change in attitudes towards family behaviour and sexual values’ (p.16), it is clear that the situation today is different from a generation ago. Nevertheless, despite all the changes, among them the fact that there is no longer an identikit family, the family as a unit is still held to be the best basic unit of society. In the course of election campaigns, we hear our politicians extolling the virtues of family values, and the support their own family has always given them. Easton (2007) also stated, with reference to surveys taken among British parents,’we remain remarkable happy with family life – 93% of us describing it as fairly or very happy’, which perhaps ‘reflects the increasing importance we place upon it [family life]’. Works Cited Amato, P. R. (1994). Father-Child Relations, Mother-Child Relations, and Offspring Psychological Well-Being in Early Adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family 56.4, 1031-1042. Easton, M. (2007, November 5) How much is family life changing? BBC News. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7078004.stm Flouri, E. & Buchanan, A. (2003) The Role of Father Involvement and Mother Involvement in Adolescents’ Psychological Well-being. British Journal of Social Work 33, 399-406. Scott, J. (2006). Family and Gender Roles: How Attitudes are Changing. Genet Working Paper 21, 1-18. Vaucher, E. (2009, March 10) The Changing roles of mothers and fathers. Physorg.com. Retrieved from: http://www.physorg.com/news155938128.html The Changing Role of the Modern Day Father (2010). American Psychological Association. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/changing-father.aspx New Rules for Moms & Dads – changing parenting roles (1999). Ebony. Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_8_54/ai_54851886/ Summary In summary, the roles of mothers and fathers in changed in so much as, for many families in the West, most caregiving and economic roles are no longer gender-specific. It is increasingly normal for a mother to be the primary or even sole breadwinner in the family, and, while less usual, increasingly common for the father to be the primary caregiver for any children. As well as the more equitable distribution of tasks between parents, single-parent families have become more common, as have families with homosexual parents, step-families, and cohabitation. With marriage rates falling and divorce rates rising, the 21st century family is characterized primarily by its diversity. Read More