Are fathers accepted around here? Implicit and explicit messages about parenting in Slovak media and legislation Magda PETRJANOSOVA, Miroslav POPPER, Ivan LUKSIK, Gabriel BIANCHI Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

Introduction research project Sustainable reproduction in Slovakia: a psycho-social inquiry cultural and normative framework (post-socialism, capitalism, Catholicism,...) structural and legislative framework (laws and real life practices concerning crèche, kindergarten, schools, abortion, IVF, adoption, state benefits,...) press analysis (mainstream and Catholic newspapers) interviews and focus groups with parents, future parents, childfree persons

Sustainable reproduction in Slovakia low reproduction rate (total fertility < 1.3) postponement of childbearing (most women are years old when having the first child) strong tradition of women working and caring for small children at home until they are 3 years old panic discourses about ageing of the population - mainly about old-age pension system not functioning - not so much about immigrants overtaking Slovakia (but partly about the Roma minority overtaking) It is important to identify and analyse the most significant factors of this development

This presentation´s topic How do media (1) and legislation texts (2) about reproduction and parenting interact with participants´ accounts (3) around these topics?

. (1) (1) Press analysis all relevant articles in the last 10 years ( ) in the most important mainstream broadsheet daily SME (N=1500) all relevant articles in the most important Catholic broadsheet (N=132) for the last year (10/2010-9/2011) the articles from the last year from both newspapers (N=305)

(2) Legislative framework analysis all relevant laws currently in force (N=31), selected laws also from the viewpoint of changes over time

(3) (3) Focus groups 15 semi-structured FG discussions with young men (N=48) and women (N=39), aged groups all male, 4 all female and 4 mixed various socio-economic backgrounds and varying levels of education focusing on the participants’ lifestyles, partner-and-parental-role constructions, work-and-family/parenting relations and normative opinions on parenthood

Press analysis because of their power to form the public discourse, the media can influence how people “see” the world, what issues they think about, what is controversial for them and what is rather normal or even incontestable (Richardson, 2007) of course, the media discourse does not represent the public opinion, it is rather a discursive arena where the public debate is developed and personal opinions and attitudes are formed (Triandafyllidou, 2002)

Press analysis (CDA) How reproduction and parenting are thematized in Slovak print media, what are the main messages? What is described as normal? Are there contradictions? What actors are present? What are their roles? What is omitted, not thematized at all (and why)?

Keyword News Suplements, thematic subwebs Discussions and blogs TogethersWhich supplements and subwebs Reproduction Medicine, Women Sex. education Medicine, Women Sexuality Medicine, Science, Women Adoption Medicine, Women Abortion Medicine, Women

Thematic and CDA analysis Microlevel Children Pregnancy Planned parenthood No fatherhood as a Macrolevel „We are dying out“ Roma people main theme Assisted reproduction Abortion

Children – messages and omissions "the most important thing in life is to have a child" "there are a lot of single mothers" "children need a FATHER, too" "children should be born in marriage" adoptions child-free persons are not thematized at all teenage pregnancies are not thematized

AR – messages and omissions "it is not easy to get pregnant" "women delay motherhood and that is bad" "thanks medicine there is no problem to conceive and give birth after 35 " "infertility of MEN is very frequent" "AR can help" "the health insurance companies do not want to pay for the AR" "AR is not allowed by the Catholic church neither the Orthodox"

Men/fathers in the press only in a few contexts – male infertility – children have a right to a mother and a father (when argumenting against a law allowing same-sex couples to adopt, or against single mothers) otherwise the important actors mentioned concerning reproduction and parenting are always women

FG summary - fatherhood models Stereotypical – men breadwinners, women caring for children and staying at home with them when small „Modern“ – prevailing – men doing a lot, but in the framework of „helping“ the women Radical – completely liberal about roles of women and men in couple, household and parenting (e.g. men can stay at home with small children) – some of them have problems with expressing these views

Stereotypical Well when I actually get... When I’ve finished studying and I’ve got a job and can provide financial security for us then for the children. (Nitra 2 M; M)

New models – missing vocabulary (...) now it’s no problem for fathers to bring up their little kids, they can give them a bath themselves, change their nappies and take them for walks and have fun with them, basically these days some fathers go on MATERNITY leave instead of the mothers, which was definitely not so obvious before. (Trnava Mix; M) Is this the only one model possible? Sometimes its the other way round. The man sometimes becomes the MOTHER, the roles are exchanged. (Nitra Mix, M)

Conclusions 1 How do media texts on reproduction and parenting interact with participants´ accounts? media texts concentrate on women and motherhood men are almost invisible except for the male infertility topic and the general claim that children need a whole family also in the afore mentioned we-are-dying-out scenarios about the postponement of childbearing, the cited statistics never are about the age of first-time fathers or about number of childless men (see also Hašková, Zamykalová, 2006)

Conclusions II concerning the fatherhood models „planned parenthood is good“ – but current social norms in Slovakia prioritise starting a family only when 1) the education is finished, 2) people have stable jobs and 3) their own place to stay (Potančoková, 2009) – if men see their role as the breadwinners they have to postpone parenting a very strong discourse on the irreplaceable mother and her “helper” - the father

Conclusions III in Slovakia there is a strong tradition of staying at home with small children until they are 3 years old strong motherhood discourse in the media in the real life there are already a few exemptions but if our participants wanted to speak about their egalitarian understanding, sometimes they did not have the right words because of the prevailing discourse

Thank you for your attention as well as for your questions and comments!