Father Involvement and Gender Equality in the United States: Contemporary Norms and Barriers

This book explores the issue of gender inequality in the family, workplace, and society, highlighting the challenges faced by women and advocating for greater gender equality. It emphasizes the importance of father involvement in reducing gender inequality and provides insights into current norms of fatherhood, barriers to father involvement, and strategies to overcome these barriers. The book argues that by establishing the expectation that fathers will be fully engaged dads as a cultural norm and providing structural opportunities for fathers to meet this standard, greater gender equality can be achieved.

Format: Hardback
Length: 158 pages
Publication date: 31 August 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book delves into the intricate dynamics of family, work, and gender, with a particular emphasis on gender inequality. Women face significant disadvantages in both paid and domestic work, largely due to their primary responsibility for tasks within the domestic sphere. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these inequalities, underscoring the urgent need to address gender disparities.

While fathers play a crucial role in contributing to and potentially reducing gender inequality, their involvement in family life has received less attention compared to the challenges faced by mothers. If men were equally engaged in all aspects of domestic life, such as being fully engaged dads, women's burdens would be alleviated, and perceptions of who is responsible for parenting would shift, leading to greater gender equality.

Father Involvement and Gender Equality in the United States is a comprehensive exploration of the issue of father involvement. It seeks to understand why fathers are less involved at home than mothers, despite the growing desire among fathers to be more actively involved in their children's lives. The book employs recent national survey data, in-depth interviews with fathers, and the authors' personal experiences as fathers to identify prevailing norms of fatherhood within the United States, the barriers to father involvement, and strategies to overcome these obstacles.

Overall, this book makes a compelling argument that by establishing the expectation that fathers will be fully engaged dads as a cultural norm and by providing structural opportunities for fathers to meet this standard, greater gender equality can be achieved within the United States. The insights and arguments presented in this book are of immense value to scholars in the fields of family, work, and gender, policymakers, and business leaders who are committed to promoting gender equality and achieving work-family balance.

Weight: 471g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032127187