I moderskabets skygge: konstruktioner af 'godt forældreskab' i repræsentationer af 'selvvalgt' enlige fædre

Abstract

More than ever, it is considered 'natural', that fathers take on (half) the responsibility for the care of their young children This article contributes to feminist research on ‘alternative’ families and fatherhood ideologies with a specific focus on single fathers. I conduct a critical examination of contemporary representations of ‘elective’ single fathers in the British print media and illustrate how parenting is (re)constructed as a female domain. This is achieved through an accentuation of ‘womanness’ as a prerequisite for appropriate nurturing, which works to construct fatherhood as secondary to motherhood. Thus, even when positively connoted subject positions of ‘good parents’ are made available to ‘elective’ single fathers (in this instance, to fathers who have adopted older children), these remain situated within a powerful discourse emphasising the ‘natural’ nurturing capacity of women and the particular parenting ideal of the (female) mother.

Keywords

• fatherhood
• masculinity
• parenting
• single fathers
• feminist post-structural discourse analysis