Abstract
How are fathers currently changing, and how are they not? To answer this question, Gayle Kaufman interviewed 70 fathers in California and North Carolina, focusing her conversations on the difficulties that men face as they navigate between job-related demands and family demands. Specifically, Kaufman set out to inquire: In a world that, at least in some quarters, places a premium on men being economic providers and child nurturers, how are dads trying to be both? How are fathers nowadays dealing with the “second shift” (a child-care shift over and above a put-food-on-the-table shift) that women have been wrestling with for centuries?
At the heart of Superdads is the distinction that Kaufman makes among different types of fathers. First, there are the “old” dads. These are fathers who tend to be more traditional in both their attitudes and behaviors. They are prone to view breadwinning as their primary father role, and when they spend time with their children they often do so by fitting that time around their breadwinning responsibilities. Second, there are the “new” dads. These are the guys who, as a rule, earnestly strive to balance work and family and struggle to be both breadwinners and caregivers. These men may alter some of their at-work practices to be available to their kids, but the changes they make are decidedly circumscribed and offer, at best, only partial solutions to the work-family quandaries they find themselves up against. Finally, there are the “super” dads. These are the men who are inclined to perceive their caregiving role as more important than their breadwinning role, and who are willing to modify their at-work habits and schedules in order to be with, and available to, their children.
According to the latest evidence (some based on time-diary studies), for the past 10 or so years, there has been an uptick in the percentage of fathers who fall into the “new” dad and “super” dad categories. This is especially noteworthy, since for the closing decades of the twentieth century, the conduct of fatherhood changed, to the extent it changed at all, very little. This, despite the fact that the culture of fatherhood was increasingly encouraging men to be more involved in their children’s lives.
Noteworthy are Kaufman’s efforts to assemble a diverse sample, particularly in terms of class, race, and ethnicity. Though her attempts to recruit Hispanic and Latino fathers were, as she said, largely unsuccessful, she had a high representation of African American fathers. Family-status wise, 55 of the men were married, while 15 were single (most as a result of divorce); and 12 of the men had stepchildren or children with multiple partners. Kaufman, however, was able to recruit only one father who was openly gay.
The best parts of the book are the stories of the men who were interviewed. Kaufman does an outstanding job of weaving into her narrative the day-in-and-day-out experiences of “old” dads, “new” dads, and “super” dads. I particularly liked the fact that she did not limit herself to presenting, here and there, juicy quotes from one father or another, but also offered mini-case studies throughout (e.g., “Matt’s story,” “Russell’s story,” “Hector’s story,” etc.).
Some of Kaufman’s findings are very interesting. She found, for one thing, that “super” dads reported low levels of stress. Thus, the changes that the “super” dads were willing to make helped them create more balanced lives. Also compelling were the accounts of how a number of single fathers became “super” dads as a result of divorce, renegotiating their concepts of masculinity in the process.
Readers will find Kaufman’s “case for ‘super’ dads” informative. As others have done, she details the benefits of involved fatherhood not just for men, but also for women and children as well as society at large. Her policy proposals (e.g., “what employers need to do,” “what governments need to do”) have been offered before, but they are on target; and the fact is that, given the current political climate, good ideas have to be repeated over and over again to gain any traction at all.
There are elements of the book that raised some questions. It is curious, for example, that although about 30 percent of the men Kaufman interviewed could be categorized as “super” dads, it is this group that serves as the basis for the book’s main storyline and title. One could argue that Kaufman needed to have all three types of fathers in her sample to communicate just how unique the “super” dads were, but one could also say that there is more than enough information about “old” dads and “new” dads from other studies that could be used as a basis for comparison, and that a better sampling strategy would have been to have had most, if not almost all, of the dads be “super” dads. This would have allowed for a deeper examination of the variations within the “super” dad category. (In fairness, it is important to point out that there are two chapters focusing exclusively on the “super” dads—one on married “super” dads and the other on single “super” dads—whereas the “old” dads and “new” dads get only one chapter each.)
Kaufman’s historical backdrop could have been stronger. I probably am more of a stickler about this than most people (full disclosure: much of my own research is on the history of fatherhood), but it would be hard to take issue with the notion that a book about how fatherhood has changed should provide the reader with a solid grounding in the intricacies of what has come before. For example, Kaufman states that a “new ‘nurturant father role’ emerged” (p. 15) in the late twentieth century when, in fact, it initially emerged in the early twentieth century. She also says, “over the past few decades, there has been a more general intensification of parenting” (p. 9). This is true, but it would have helped to note that the roots of this intensification extend further back.
These concerns, however, do not undermine a fine book that, at its best, details the lives of a group of “super” dads who are fashioning lives that are beneficial to all. Although it is still a fact that, on an aggregate level, men’s contributions to childcare, especially in the area of overall parental responsibility—often referred to as the psychic division of labor—still lags significantly behind women’s contributions, the “super” dad phenomenon does give us reason to believe that the aim of gender equality may start to pick up speed and not continue to be stalled. We can at least hope.