Selling fatherhood / selling gender-equality Adrienne Burgess Research Manager The Fatherhood Institute (London) March 2009, Rio

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT UK very low down on the UNICEF league table as a “good place” to grow up as a child Highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe 1:3 children will experience their parents’ separation before age 16: HOWEVER lone motherhood a “stage” not a “condition” 50% of children in separated families see father at least weekly

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT (CONT). Highly gender-differentiated leave entitlements: 2 weeks (paid) paternity leave 39 weeks (paid) maternity leave no paid parental leave Highest level of father-involvement in Europe, outside of the Scandinavian countries: English fathers do 25-33% of child caretaking father-involvement increased 800% from 15 minutes to 2 hours on average working day. Involved fatherhood an important social discourse (also in immigrant communities)

THE “DEFICIT PERSPECTIVE” When men take care of children...

The Fatherhood Institute: history Founded: 1999 (registered charity) Current team: 8 plus secretariat and freelance trainers Location: across England (a “virtual” team) Original name: Fathers Direct (name changed 2008 ) Funding: mainly ONE DEPARTMENT in government Described as: the UK’s fatherhood ‘think tank’

The Fatherhood Institute:activities: The Fatherhood Institute: activities: Research (to provide the evidence base) Policy work (changing legislation, policy and guidelines – national and local) Publications: “how to engage” for professionals (capacity building) for professionals to give to fathers Training & consultancy Media campaigns

The Fatherhood Institute: vision The Fatherhood Institute works to create a society that gives all children a strong and positive relationship with their father AND any father-figures supports both mothers and fathers as earners and carers prepares boys and girls for a future shared role in caring for children.

Child wellbeing Maternal wellbeing Paternal wellbeing ▼ SOCIETAL WELLBEING

Gender equality and fatherhood: Fatherhood is one of the few relatively easy ways by which one can talk about gender Active fatherhood should help achieve some of the key goals in gender equality more sex equality at work more sharing of household chores boys and girls more androgynous in their approaches to earning/caring lower levels of DV/sexual abuse

Fatherhood Institute: our orientation 1. Fathers desirable, not essential 2. Fathers’ value not dependent on male/female DIFFERENCE 3. Fathers as important to daughters as to sons 4. Fathers and father-figures not the same: some cross-over, but children think about them differently and so should we 5. High father-involvement usually positive BUT...

Fatherhood Institute: our orientation 6. “Bad dads” very influential and therefore should be engaged with 7. “No dads” impact on children 8. Fathers impact on MOTHERS 9. Services cannot take a gender-neutral approach to engaging with dads and hope to engage them 10. Father-inclusive practice, not parallel services for men/fathers, is the way forward 11. Much of the most important work on fatherhood is done not with fathers, but with children, mothers and the wider family

Discourses/issues we do not associate the Fatherhood Institute with: 1.Separation / divorce 2.Enlisting men and boys in the fight against gender-based violence 3. The “trouble with boys” 4. “Men in crisis” 6. Fathers as “role models” 7. Marriage

And we try.... never to be publicly ANGRY

Some examples of our work: research Research summaries freely available on our website Main Research Summary: ‘The Costs & Benefits of Active Fatherhood’ Fathers and Smoking Fathers and Breastfeeding Fathers and Postnatal Depression Young Fathers AND MANY MORE...

An example of our work: policy STEP ONE: Get headline government policy documents to refer to MOTHERS and FATHERS not PARENTS STEP TWO: Get the relevant government Department to audit how well headline policy is being translated into practice (FINDING – badly!) STEP THREE: Government runs campaign to rectify this: “Think Fathers” STEP FOUR: We ensure this isn’t the end of the matter...

An example of our work: practice

Some examples of our work: Materials for professionals to give dads

An example of our work: public campaigning – MATERNITY SERVICES