Research Article

Literature Review on Shifting Fatherhood

Number: 6 August 22, 2017
  • Tingting Tan
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Literature Review on Shifting Fatherhood

Abstract

This study aims to review what extent have the attitudes and practices on fatherhood changed in different countries and how these changes are explained. Firstly, a comprehensive review of fatherhood study is given. Following this, the dynamic changes of fatherhood and its causes in 4 countries, i.e., Sweden, America, Japan and China are elaborated. Lastly, this article is concluded with four main points: a) Both Sweden and America are Western welfare states with strong academics and public calling on gender equality and new fatherhood. However, Sweden is much more father-friendly than America; b) Although China and Japan share an East Asian ‘Confucian’ cultural heritage, they are on different paths in terms of shifting fatherhood; c) Even though these four countries all have experienced periods of industrialization, modernization, urbanization and postmodern globalization, gender equality and new fatherhood ideologies and values have a much more profound influence on fathering in Sweden and American than that in China and Japan; d) These four models reflect four different aspects: Swedish fatherhood - father-friendly model challenges mainstream thinking on Americanization, while American fatherhood - Second-mother model reveals the inherent traditional social expectation that men should give priority to the work; In contrast, Japanese fatherhood - struggling model testifies the fluctuation of transformational fatherhood path, whilst Chinese fatherhood - women-headed model shapes a new egalitarian gender order rather than discourse of conservatism in the family life.

Keywords

References

  1. Abbott, D. A., Ming, Z. F., & Meredith, W. H. (1992). An evolving redefinition of the fatherhood role in the People's Republic of China. International Journal of Sociology of the family, 45-54.
  2. Baştuğ, S. (2002). Household and family in Turkey: An historical perspective. Autonomy and dependence in the family: Turkey and Sweden in critical perspective, 99-116.
  3. Becker, G. S. (2013). The economic approach to human behavior. University of Chicago press.
  4. Bernhardt, E., Goldscheider, F., & Turunen, J. (2016). Attitudes to the gender division of labor and the transition to fatherhood Are egalitarian men in Sweden more likely to remain childless?. Acta Sociologica, 59(3), 269–284.
  5. Beşpınar, F. U. (2015). Between ideals and enactments: The experience of ‘New Fatherhood’ among middle-class men in Turkey. Gender and Sexuality in Muslim Cultures, Ed. Gül Özyeğin, Ashgate, 95-114.
  6. Bianchi, S. M., Milkie, M. A., Sayer, L. C., & Robinson, J. P. (2000). Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social forces, 79(1), 191-228.
  7. Castles, F.G., Leibfried, S., Lewis, J., Obinger, H. and Pierson, C. (2010) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  8. Cheal, D. (2008). Families in today's world: a comparative approach. Routledge.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Sociology

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Tingting Tan This is me
Kyushu University

Publication Date

August 22, 2017

Submission Date

August 4, 2017

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 1970 Number: 6

APA
Tan, T. (2017). Literature Review on Shifting Fatherhood. Masculinities: A Journal of Identity and Culture, 6, 102-128. https://izlik.org/JA57MC79SB