Culture and Population: Frances Goldscheider

The literature on the modern gender revolution has recently focused extensively on evidence that that it ‘incomplete’ or even ‘stalled.’  The rapid change in gender role attitudes that characterized the 1970s and 1980s slowed dramatically in the US, as did the rapid increase in female labor force participation.  Studies of sharing housework that appeared to show increased equality have been criticized because the gain in equality has resulted considerably more from women’s decreases in time spent on housework than from men’s increases in housework time.

Usually ignored in all this pessimistic discussion has been the continued increase in men’s time with children—in father involvement. When the increase in men’s time with children is considered, it is usually denigrated as more rewarding than housework, and often, just the ‘fun stuff’ (i.e., playing with children). And of course, so many men are absent fathers, and/or perhaps less involved stepfathers.  Nevertheless, men’s increased father involvement is indeed real, though often obscured by the fact that mother involvement has also been increasing.  In this presentation, I consider the increase in father involvement in the larger context of the ongoing gender revolution in the public and private spheres.

See the paper Dr. Goldscheider will be discussing

Please note that, at the present time, Morrill Hall is not accessible for handicapped individuals.