A Study Of Fatherhood In British Family In 1960s

Just as what Robert Griswold said, "in human history, most men were fathers and all males were sons, so it was important to have a clear understanding of males’ experience as father and know how fatherhood was constructed by culture". Males are heroes of history and father has a long history, but males’ experience as a father was not written in history books until World War Ⅱ and these books were concentrated in sociology, psychology, and pedagogy fields. Researches of fatherhood in British families focused on the 19th century or earlier; few scholars explored fatherhood of the 20th century; historians studied fatherhood before 1960; sociologists studied fatherhood after 1980s; no book researched fatherhood in 1960s British families until now."The turbulent 1960s" witnessed the rise of youth movement and business culture, Marriage, families and the relevant law changed dramatically during the period, for example, premarital cohabitation became general; divorce rate and bastards increased, so it was referred to as the "tolerant society". During this period, vulnerable groups began to seek for their needs and challenged the social authority. After the postwar revitalization and before the rising sender revolution, All in all,1960s was an important period in the long history of fatherhood. With the progress of contraception measures in 1960s, being parents becomes a free option rather than a compulsory behavior, and fatherhood plays a growing important role in personal statues.The paper will study New Age fatherhood in social culture and individual practice, outline the picture of fatherhood in British family during this period, not only put father into the triangle relationship with family and homework but also put into the triangle relationship with nation and market, analyze the developing reasons of fatherhood and the cultural root why the development is limited. The paper will introduce single mother family, single father family and ethnic minorities, and make comprehensive and objective comparison of fatherhood between this period and the postwar period based on analysis of families with heterosexual parents. The introduction part proposes the topic, introduces the relevant concepts of fatherhood, sorts out the current situation of domestic and foreign researches of fatherhood in British families, proposes the illustration points, and points out major research methods in the paper. Concretely speaking, the paper makes detailed analysis of fatherhood in British families in the following four aspects:freshman father, breadwinner, education instructor, and emotional interaction. Chapter 1 includes bearing concept, accompanied delivery, babysitting, and homework share. Chapter 2 includes family expenditure, housing situation, mother’s job, master of family, and masculinity. Chapter 3 illustrates moral guidance, cultural education, sex education and personality development. Chapter 4 mainly illustrates intimacy and love, pocket money and gift, and partners and friends.The paper draws the conclusion that there are some gap between fatherhood in cultural ideas and individual practice, cultural ideas affect individual practice. In real life, fathers in 1960s British families supported the whole family and were regarded as the "important others" in the eyes of children at the same time. Fathers’ roles as a breadwinner face the challenge coming by mothers, fathers participated in early parenting, education and guidance, and emotional interaction frequently. Fathers not only have indirect influence on families such as supporting mothers emotionally and financially and educating children, but also have direct influence. Fathers play different roles in different kinds of families. In single mother families, father’s participation is influenced by the identity of fatherhood. In real life, fathers do not provide financial support and take care of children. In single father families, fathers pay more attention to job when facing babysitting and job choice, and the society prefers to help these single fathers in babysitting. In migration families, in general, the father supports the family and the mother takes care of children at home, so father’s degree of participation is low.As modern family’s emotional role is more important and a growing number of mothers have a job, fathers participate more in concrete childbearing affairs passively or actively. However, fathers’ degree of participation is still low due to social culture, family change and welfare system. Firstly, the inherent thinking of father support the family and women take care of the children still influential in the sixties. Secondly, the rising of single-parent families increase the space and emotionally distant between children and their father. Finally, UK’s national welfare system is based on its general family model that males support the family, and social policies give priority to males as a citizen rather than a father. On the contrary, social policies about females emphasize their role as a wife and mother. That is not only fathers’ duty but also their right, children’s welfare, and public wealth.