Dad Researchers: Looking for a Place to Publish?
Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by Brian Reid.
Via the Sloan Work and Family folks. Can’t wait to see what research makes its way into the issue. If you’re a dad researcher, and you submit, I’d love to know more about what you’re up to.
Call for Papers: Special Issue
Fathering – A Journal of Research, Theory, and Practice
Topic: “Men, work and parenting II” – Deadline August 1, 2010Special Issue co-editors: Linda Haas, Indiana University, USA, lhaas@iupui.edu and Margaret O’Brien, University of East Anglia, UK, M.O-brien@uea.ac.uk
Papers that address linkages between men, work and family are invited for this special issue. Possible topics include: men’s constructions of caring; effects of public policy on men’s ability to combine paid work and family caregiving; impact of employment on men’s caregiving; men’s strategies for work-family harmonization; men’s breadwinner attitudes and behavior; men’s work and family tradeoffs; effects of overload and overwork on men’s relationships in families; impact of caregiving on men’s employment; men’s use of workplace or government policies designed to facilitate combining work and family; characteristics of father-friendly workplaces; the fatherhood “wage premium.” Papers that include diversity by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status and social class as well as those that cover more than one society are especially sought. Papers should be sent to both editors, copied to Fathering editor Andrea Doucet at fathering@carleton.ca.
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More on Keeping Dads Out of the Delivery Room
Posted on 08. Jun, 2010 by Brian Reid.
I have been baffled by the recent backlash against dads in the delivery, which is one of those things that seems to make such perfect sense to me that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the counter-argument.
First, the New York Times ran a piece suggesting that men are sufficiently grossed out by the miracle of birth that it actually kills passion. Then, some doc in France said that having dad around is bad because it stresses mom out. Now comes the idea that the pre-natal period — in which dad, no matter how many Lamaze classes he attends, is kind of on the outside looking in — conditions would-be dads to see themselves as useless when the kid actually emerges.
I love Strollerderby’s take on why this is dumb:
So, instead of keeping dad away, maybe the answer is as simple as acknowledging that the period of pregnancy and birth can be weird and awkward and alienating for him. We can talk more about the differences between men and women’s experiences. We can give mom permission to go though a distinctly female experience without feeling like she’s a sell-out to women’s rights. We should look harder at why dad is feeling so passive in the delivery room. And give him better tools to help his pregnant/birthing/lactating partner in a way that bolsters confidence.
And — once again, for the record — I am adamant that dads be present for childbirth for one simple reason: there are few times in life when we can make it crystal clear to dads how powerful and important the job of raising, teaching and protecting a child is. One of those time happens in the delivery room, and I shudder to think there are people interested in eliminating that moment.
(Hat Tip to Jason Sperber for pointing this out.)
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Hope for Magazines About Parenting
Posted on 07. Jun, 2010 by Brian Reid.
I have, for years, been despondent about the state of the parenting-magazine market, which has — like the majority of the baby-industrial complex — aggressively and intentionally marginalized dads.
This wasn’t the result of some mom cabal, either. There are plenty of guys editing at and writing for these magazines. If you look far back enough, you can even find my byline in some of the larger-circulation parenting books. My editors were primarily other men.
But neither I nor the guys I was writing for ever aired our daddy centricity on the page. So I was thrilled to see Shawn Bean, the executive editor of Babytalk, lay it all out there in a nifty piece titled “Meet the Modern Dad.” It’s full of pride and swagger and confidence in parenting:
That’s right: a dad editing a baby magazine. Let’s be honest. This is not a traditional role for a guy. I push tandem strollers through the halls of our building, inspiring all manner of rubbernecking. I receive emails that read, “Shawn, as a mom I’m sure you’ll love this new bouncy seat.” I am a pro football fanatic who knows the best brand of binkies. I can hook up a DVD player and swaddle a newborn.
I am a 21st-century pop.
The rest of the piece goes on to lay out the stats: dads are a rising parenting power, and we’re increasingly coming together for social support and hands-on advice. We are daddies, hear us roar.
Of course, a more cynical reader would still facepalm at the structure of the article, which stops every few hundred words to reference “What moms should know” about this new, strange type of male. (Because, you know, the article — while *about* dads — isn’t actually *for* dads.) But I’m not that kind of cynical. Not today.