The New Dad: A Portrait of Today's Father

Over the last six years, the Boston College Center for Work & Family (BCCWF) has completed a series of research studies on the changing face of fatherhood in America. In 2009, we recognized that the lack of high-quality, in-depth research on fathers had led to many misconceptions, including: Inaccurate portrayals of fathers in the mediaOutdated workplace assumptions about the caregiving roles that fathers playEmployer work-family programs targeted, explicitly or implicitly, at women, making men reluctant to take advantage of these offeringsIncreased work-family conflict for fathers that is not widely recognized or understoodPerhaps the most troubling problem is that fathers' voices have often been absent from, or perhaps even seen as irrelevant to, work-family conversations. In an effort to address this, we began our journey with a relatively small sample, qualitative study of fathers of very young children to better understand their experiences. We coined the title "The New Dad" for what became our research series and have published a report each year exploring differing perspective of the role dads play today at work and in the home

Movie and Television Fathers: A Positive Reflection of Positive Changes

Certain films and television programs depicting fathers have both enduring popularity and have reflected the advances in the institution of fatherhood. This has happened because of a symbiosis that has delivered positive results: popular films and television shows that earn money for producers and advertisers have depicted fathers who have changed to reflect the popular example. These depictions have contributed in their way to mending the family dynamic, specifically related to the father’s essential role in the family. Such family-oriented films and television shows have effectively showed fathers (and men that would become fathers) that they could be much more than a stereotype. These pages will show how these films and television programs have reflected how the institution of fatherhood has changed over time in America and how these shows and films have modeled, instructed, and encouraged fathers and future fathers to be more, deliver more and influence their children in a more positive direction. The changes in the institution of fatherhood that arose through these years from 1950 to 1980 have been reflected back to the public through these movie and television fathers. Such “reflection” has solidified and helped institutionalize the advancements in the role of the American father to its present model of a nurturer who sees great value in being responsible, accessible, and engaged with his children

Nuclear Families for the Nuclear Age: Disney\u27s Part in Creating Gender Roles in the 1950s

The 1950s was a revolutionary period for American youth culture. The Walt Disney Company played an important role in forming and conveying a new image and set of ideals associated with childhood. My paper examines the Disney Company’s messages about growing up, in particular, the gendered expectations surrounding love that revolutionized the way Americans viewed family life. For both ideological and business reasons, Disney promoted an idealized concept of the nuclear family to children. My paper pays close attention to the conversation occurring between Disney and the American public by analyzing both 1950s Disney storylines, disseminated in multiple mediums such as movies, toys, and books, and the public’s reactions to them. My paper presents its findings in three main sections: parenting, growing up, and building a family. In each section, I look at the marketing strategies and public’s reactions. Previous scholarship about Disney has tended to focus only on Disney movies. By comparing multiple media for their message, my paper allows for a greater understanding of the reciprocal impact of Disney and the American public. And, as anyone with children, or who was one in the twenty-first century knows, the conversation between Disney and the American public is still going strong

Do-It-Yourself: Constructing, Repairing and Maintaining Domestic Masculinity

In the 1860s when Harriet Robinson annually set aside a full month for the spring cleaning of her Malden, Massachusetts home, she had the occasional assistance of hired help, but none from her husband William. Over the years, as the Robinsons improved their house by installing weather stripping, repapering rooms, refinishing furniture, and putting in a new mantle, Harriet\u27s biographer Claudia Bushman notes that neither she nor William lifted a finger toward household maintenance. 1 Some eighty years later, immediately after World War II, when Eve and Sam Goldenberg moved into a somewhat decrepit apartment in the Bronx, Sam patched the holes in the wall himself and they both worked to scrub away the residual odor of people who don\u27t care. 2 After a few years in the Bronx, the Goldenbergs (now the Gordons) moved out to a new subdivision on Long Island where Sam built a brick patio and the surrounding fence, installed a new front door, and drew up plans to build a dormer window on the front facade. Real estate agents for the development would drive prospective buyers to the Gordons\u27 house so they could admire Sam\u27s handiwork and, in the words of the family chronicler Donald Katz, see what a homeowner could do with old-fashioned, all American know-how ... through the agency of his own hands.

\u3cem\u3eLost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America.\u3c/em\u3e Cynthia R. Daniels (Ed.)

Book note for Cynthia R. Daniels (Ed.), Lost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America. New York: St. Martin\u27s Press, 2000. $16.95 papercover

\u3cem\u3eA Poverty of Imagination: Bootstrap Capitalism, Sequel to Welfare Reform.\u3c/em\u3e David Stoesz

Book note for David Stoesz, A Poverty of Imagination: Bootstrap Capitalism, Sequel to Welfare Reform. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. $19.95 papercover,$50.00 hardcover

Seeing Young Fathers in a Different Way: Editorial

I think it's absolutely outrageous that so many young men in our society feel they can go out, get women pregnant, allow them to have children, make them bring them up by themselves, often on benefits, and then just disappear. It is utterly shocking and I hope ... the ministers will get hold of some of these feckless fathers, drag them off, make them work, put them in chains if necessary.... (David Davies MP, 12 November 2013, House of Commons; Cornack, 2013