State of America’s fathers: A MenCare advocacy publication
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Heilman, Brian
Geneva, Cole
Matos, Kenneth
Hassink, Alexa
Mincy, Ron
Barker, Gary
Tarih
2016Üst Veri
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Fatherhood in America is changing, and changing fast. Never before
have fathers been so visible – in commercials and in the media in
general, in research, and in our communities. There’s a reason for that:
men are doing more of the care work than ever before in the U.S., and
the new research we present here shows that the majority of fathers
want to spend even more time with their children. Women, too, want
men to take on more of the caregiving. Yet, too often, our society still
thinks of fathers as the secondary parent – the helper – and we, as
fathers, too often consider or refer to ourselves as such. As this report
will show, holding a lower bar for fathers’ caregiving contributions works
against our efforts to reach true gender equality at work and at home.
Never before has the gap been so large between what parents of all
genders want in terms of parental leave and support for their caregiving
roles, and what our state and federal governments, workplaces, and social
norms permit. It is shameful, for instance, that the U.S. is the only highincome country in the world with no nationally guaranteed paid leave for
parents of infants and young children. In fact, we don’t even guarantee
unpaid leave after the birth of a child for a great many employees.
The situation is not entirely dire. Certain large companies have gotten
the message that parents are seeking greater so-called work-life balance,
and now offer generous paid leave and flexible work policies to attract
top talent. This is clearly a positive trend. But these options are still
mostly available only to the highest-income, best-educated fathers and
mothers in the country, if at all. Behind the scenes, and in the majority
of workplaces in the country, the opportunities and options available to
the poorest families and fathers in the U.S. are appalling. In spite of how
much we know about the importance of their involvement, our policies
toward nonresident fathers tend to be punitive and nearly exclusively
focused on their financial contributions, harming children’s well-being.
PREFACE
Gary Barker, PhD
President and CEO,
Promundo-US
5
It’s time to push the change forward – to acknowledge and support
parents of all genders in their desire to offer the best possible lives
for their children. It’s time to achieve full equality in caregiving
between women and men, and for families of all sexual orientations
and gender identities. It’s time to support the lowest-income families
in our country, who face the greatest challenges in supporting their
children – in particular, the lowest-income fathers who struggle for
adequate employment and income, and who are too often cut off from
their children as a result. This support must include the nearly one
million fathers and families who suffer under our reprehensively high
incarceration rates.
What is the state of America’s fathers in 2016? We’ve come a long
way toward achieving gender equality in parenting. Fathers are more
present in the lives of their children than in the past, and they are doing
more of the caregiving. But we have a long way to go. We do not
adequately prepare our sons to see themselves as caregivers and as
full and respectful partners in sexual and reproductive health. We do
not sufficiently support our families, through parent training and other
means, to ensure that our children’s lives are free of violence. We have
not created a workplace culture that recognizes that being a caring
parent and leading a productive work life are not and must not be
treated as mutually exclusive.
In short, we are not yet a child-friendly and parent-supportive country.
However, as we present in this report, we know what we need to do to
become one.
Alıntıla (Citation)
Heilman, B., Cole, G., Matos, K., Hassink, A., Mincy, R., & Barker, G. (2016). State of America’s fathers: A MenCare advocacy publication. Washington, DC: Promundo.