Maintaining Boundaries: Masculinizing Fatherhood in the Feminine Province of Parenting

• In Event: 035 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Masculinizing the Feminine

Abstract

Today’s fathers are more involved with childcare than the generations that preceded them. There is evidence to suggest that men consider fatherhood and their relationships with their children as more important than ever before. Still, the activity of “parenting” is deemed by general society as feminine. Thus, men who choose to identify with hegemonic notions of masculinity have few pre-existing father identities to choose from. I use qualitative methods to examine the different approaches men take to conciliate their actions as fathers with their senses of masculine identity. I found that men who participate in this realm do this by stressing different areas of importance when it comes to parenting, by masculinizing their fathering activities, and by staying away from parenting activities that seem to go too deep into feminine waters.

Author

• Orlee Hauser, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh