|
|
Article: A life course perspective on fatherhood and family policies in the United States and South Africa.(Report)
- Article from:
- Fathering
- Article date:
- March 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Men's Studies Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
In this theoretical paper, I develop a framework to analyze and to understand men's work and family roles in multicultural societies with histories of inequality. I draw upon a life course perspective--including the concepts of reciprocal continuity, linked lives, and timing of lives (Elder, 1995)--for the basic components of the framework. For each concept, I examine lived experiences of and effect of social structure on poor fathers in South Africa and the United States. In both societies, nonresidential fatherhood emerges from a complex interplay of subordination by race and class, dynamic political economies, and family dynamics. Paternal absence is shaped by migrant ...