'Feckless Fathers’ to ‘Dynamic Dads'
Wed, 26 Feb 2014 11:32:00 GMT
On Wednesday 19 February, Dr Abigail Locke delivered the fifth public lecture in the Institute for Research in Citizenship and Applied Human Sciences (IRCAHS) 2013-2014 series entitled ‘Feckless Fathers’ to ‘Dynamic Dads’: Fatherhood in Contemporary British Culture.
The lecture took place in the George Buckley Lecture theatre, within the Researcher Hub building on the University’s Queensgate camp. Live tweets were also streamed throughout the lecture via the School of Human and Health Sciences twitter account @UoHHealthSocSci.
Dr Locke is a Reader in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Huddersfield. She joined the University from Loughborough in 2008 and her research focus is around gender, parenting and identity. Dr Locke is the current Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Social Psychology section and she is also a Visiting Professor of Social and Health Psychology at the University of Derby.
The forty or more members of the public, staff and students listened intently to the presentation which focused on current perceptions of fatherhood and ‘stay at home dads’ (SAHD). To illustrate, Dr Locke began her talk by describing the way in which fathers have been written out of oral history, motherhood taking precedence. Using social policy contexts and discourses around masculinity, the role of ‘breadwinner’ or ‘provider’ are terms associated with fatherhood, and there are societal expectations of ‘fatherhood’ and ‘motherhood’ that are given to us through common media.
Dr Locke spoke about gender equality and gender differences and the way in which these differences emerge in relation to work, for example, the policy shift that is imminent, enabling shared parental leave. She also spoke of the rise in the number of dads who stay at home from one in ten to one in seven. The audience were asked to consider how stay at home dads are defined - Are stay at home dads those men who look after their children full-time? Are they men who are shift workers who share childcare? Are they part time workers? Are they men who are able to do some of their work from home? These questions helped to illustrate how difficult it is to determine who a stay at home dad actually is and how his role is best understood because it is a concept that is hard to define.
Describing her research into contemporary fatherhood, Dr Locke explained how she sourced the articles she analysed. She explained how stay at home dads might often be perceived by their male peers, whilst stay at home mums are the norm; women don’t have to account for staying at home, yet, men do. Society is geared towards women/mothers and not men/fathers. For example, there are resources for mothers such as mother and toddler groups amidst an understanding of what constitutes ‘parenting’, which has been constructed by society. Dr Locke concluded her talk by explaining how her research will be progressed; she hopes to interview stay at home fathers about their roles. This engaging and enlightening talk raised some interesting questions from the audience too.
The next public lecture ‘Focus of Family Support: an evening celebrating the work of the Nationwide Children’s Research Centre (NCRC)’ takes place on Wednesday 5 March 2014 in the Diamond Jubilee Lecture Theatre. It will feature talks by Professor Nigel Parton and Martin Manby from the University of Huddersfield and the NCRC and Professor Nick Frost from Leeds Metropolitan University. The evening will be chaired by Mrs Sharda Parthasarathi, an NCRC Trustee and Children’s Service Manager, Bradford NSPCC Family Support Service.
Registration 6.00pm, talks commence at 6.30pm – 7.40pm. A buffet reception will follow this event. Reserve your place now.
