Making Men into Fathers: Men, Masculinities and the Social Politics of Fatherhood

Fatherhood is on the political agenda in many countries, often cast in terms of crisis. One side of the policy debate focuses on fathers as deadbeat dads who do not provide financial support and care for their children. The other revolves around making men into active and engaged fathers. However, these policies are often at odds with the employers' reluctance to accommodate work schedules to fathers' needs. In Making Men into Fathers, prominent scholars in gender studies and the critical studies of men consider how varied institutional settings and policy logics around cash and care contour the possibilities and constraints for new models of fatherhood, determining the choices open to men. From different historical and societal perspectives, the authors provide insights into the studies of men as gendered subjects, including the role of transnational and global issues of fatherhood, and the emergence of men's movements, contesting and reimaging fatherhood.

Table of Contents:
List of figures; List of tables; Preface; Introduction: making men into fathers Barbara Hobson and David Morgan; Part I. Who Fathers?: 1. Coresidential paternal roles in industrialized countries: Sweden, Hungary and the United States Livia Sz. Oláh, Eva M. Bernhardt and Frances K. Goldscheider; Part II. Men in Social Policy and the Logics of Cash and Care: 2. Citizens, workers or fathers? Men in the history of US social policy Ann SholaOrloff and Renee Monson; 3. Compulsory fatherhood: the coding of fatherhood in the Swedish welfare state Helena Bergman and Barbara Hobson; 4. The problem of fathers: policy and behaviour in Britain Jane Lewis; 5. A new role for fathers? The German case Ilona Ostner; 6. Transformations of fatherhood: the Netherlands Trudie Knijn and Peter Selten; Part III. Resisting and Reclaiming Fatherhood: 7. Making sense of fatherhood: the non-payment of child support in Spain Ingegerd Municio-Larsson and Carmen Pujol Algans; 8. The Fatherhood Responsibility Movement: the centrality of marriage, work and male sexuality in reconstructions of masculinity and fatherhood Anne Gavanas; Part IV. Theorizing Men, Masculinities and Fatherhood: 9. Men, fathers and the state: national and global relations Jeff Hearn; 10. Epilogue David Morgan; Notes; References; Index.

About the Author :
Barbara Hobson is a Professor of Sociology and holds a chair in Sociology and Gender Studies at Stockholm University. She is a director of the Advanced Research School in Comparative Gender Studies, a program for international research exchange and advanced doctoral studies. Barbara Hobson is both the founding and current editor of Social Politics: International Studies of Gender, State, and Society, published by Oxford University Press and is the Vice President of the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare, and Social Policy (RC 19 of the International Sociological Association'. Barbara Hobson has published numerous articles on gender and welfare states on the themes of gender and citizenship, including women's agency and welfare state formation, solo mothers, and women's economic dependency in the family. Her current research and publications address (1) gender and economic citizenship within the framework of the European Union; and (2) social movements in trans-national policy arena. Her most recent book publications include an edited collection, Gender and Citizenship in Transition published by Macmillan Press and a coedited collection, Contested Concepts. Gender and Social Politics. The Fatherhood project, from which Making Men into Fathers emerged, was one of several international projects from an extensive research program grant, which was awarded to Barbara Hobson from the Centennial Fund of the Bank of Sweden. Another book from the project will be published in 2002: Recognition Struggles: Gender, Class, and Race/Ethnic Identities and the Frames of Citizenship.

Review :
'It does … make an important contribution and will be a continuing asset. The paperback edition also has a wonderful cover picture. This is a photograph from a Swedish campaign promoting the new father in the 1970s. It shows a well-known weightlifter holding a baby. The weightlifter is smiling hesitantly, as if he had just discovered a new pleasure but was not sure if it was allowed. The baby is looking quite sceptical. Perhaps they are both right.' International Sociology