‘More than the sum of its parts?’ ten years on

Research on fatherhood has accelerated markedly over the past three decades, reshaping societal understandings and gendered expectations of men as fathers and establishing a new ‘state of play’ in fatherhood studies. This article builds on that archive, engaging with claims of growing cultural momentum towards normative ‘involved fatherhood’ advanced in the 2015 special issue of this journal. Just over a decade on, there has been limited opportunity to assess how subsequent global events and their gendered effects have reshaped the everyday conditions of fathering and altered the progressive trajectory identified at that time. We examine both the regressive features of the current structural context and emerging international research showing how fathers’ involvement is being sustained and reworked through grass-roots, community-based and peer-led initiatives. Despite evidence of progression, we caution that the contemporary global landscape poses significant risks to the durability and institutionalisation of involved fatherhood.

community initiatives · father involvement · Fatherhood · fathering practices · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender and Feminist Studies · Work-Family Balance Challenges