Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered

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dc.contributor.authorClowes, Lindsay
dc.contributor.authorRatele, Kopano
dc.contributor.authorShefer, Tamara
dc.date.accessioned12/04/2017 11:54
dc.date.available12/04/2017 11:54
dc.date.issued2013
dc.description.abstractThe legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to identify men who - as social rather than biological fathers - played significant roles in their lives. Secondly, we suggest that while dominant discourses around social fatherhood foreground authoritarian and controlling behaviours, there are moments when alternative more nurturing and consultative versions of being a father and/or being fathered are evident in the experiences of this group of men.en_US
dc.description.accreditationISIen_US
dc.identifier.citationClowes, L., Ratele, K. & Shefer, T. (2013). Who needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathered. Journal of Gender Studies, 22(3): 255-267en_US
dc.identifier.issn0958-9236
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/2733
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2012.708823
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterFALSE
dc.publisherTaylor & Francisen_US
dc.rightsThis is the post-print version of the article found online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2012.708823
dc.status.ispeerreviewedTRUE
dc.subjectFatheren_US
dc.subjectFatherhooden_US
dc.subjectPatriarchyen_US
dc.subjectMasculinityen_US
dc.subjectGenderen_US
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_US
dc.titleWho needs a father? South African men reflect on being fathereden_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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