Seminar Series: Fatherhood in Institutional Context: Fathers’ Time with Children in Two Parent Families

About the Talk

This talk will examine cross-national variation in fathers' time with children in two-parent families, utilizing time use surveys from the United States (2003), Germany (2001), Norway (2000), and the United Kingdom (2000). Dr. Hook hypothesizes that family policy and cultural context alter the relationship between employment practices and fathers' time with children. She finds that cross-national variation in father involvement is not explained by demographic differences across countries. Instead, the mechanisms associated with involvement vary across countries. Fathers are most responsive to time constraints (i.e., employment hours and schedule) and demands (i.e., maternal employment) in the US and UK. The results reconcile inconsistencies across single country studies and shift our focus to understanding why some mechanisms are relevant in some settings and not in others.

About the Speaker

Jennifer Hook is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Jen's research areas include gender, family demography, inequality, work-family, social policy, child welfare, and comparative sociology. She focuses on how social contexts, particularly social policies and opportunities in the labor market, impact individuals and families. Her recent work examines the influence of country context on fathers' time with children, the division of household labor, and women's employment, as well as the impacts of state policy and practice on foster children's outcomes and the economic vulnerability of parents involved with the child welfare system. Her research has appeared in journals including the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and the European Sociological Review. She is coauthor of Gendered Tradeoffs: Family, Social Policy, and Economic Inequality in Twenty-One Countries (Russell Sage 2009).

Visit Professor Hook's webpage