A Cultural Model of Parenthood as Engineering: How Caregiving Fathers Construct a Gender-Neutral View of the Parent Role

Abstract

Despite the growing impact of the therapeutic discourse on family life, there is limited research on how it affects lay understanding of parenthood, beyond concerns with gender roles. Drawing on a case study of caregiving fathers in new family forms, we delineate an emerging folk model of parenthood as engineering. It construes parental caregiving as lay expertise in emotion management, which includes active planning and vision, pursuit of information, time management, and emotional engagement. The cultural shift toward parenting as expertise is reinforced by fathers increased participation in child care, as men are often viewed as lacking “natural” maternal competence and more dependent on deliberate acquisition of expertise. Notions of engineering may not be as salient among heteronormative parents who are less compelled to actively reconstruct established familial structures. While this folk model underscores a gender-neutral ideal nested in liberal ideology, the actual shift raises renewed questions about gendered power relations.

Former Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Fathers' Involvement 4 Years Later: A Qualitative Study

“…We did not find that fathers engaged in a more expert and managed approach to caring for their child, what Kaplan and Knoll (2019) labeled "parenting as engineering". The fathers in this study did not talk about structural or cultural barriers to caregiving (Swan et al, 2019) or discuss if they believed that mothering was more valued than fathering (Steinour, 2018).…”

“…Yet, recently new and "caring masculinities" have emerged defined by men in masculine and at times problematic ways because they enforce existing gender hierarchies (Jordan, 2020). Men also tend to resort to a more masculine model of care with an emphasis on expertise, planning, information gathering, and management of time and emotions which Kaplan and Knoll (2019) call "parenting as engineering". They hypothesize that men feel the need to deliberately acquire expertise to overcome the lack of "natural maternal competence" (Kaplan & Knoll, 2019).…”

“…Men also tend to resort to a more masculine model of care with an emphasis on expertise, planning, information gathering, and management of time and emotions which Kaplan and Knoll (2019) call "parenting as engineering". They hypothesize that men feel the need to deliberately acquire expertise to overcome the lack of "natural maternal competence" (Kaplan & Knoll, 2019).…”

"Because Dads Change Diapers Too": Negotiating Gendered Parenting Discourses on Reddit Parenting Forums

“…In recent years, many family and feminist social scientists have found that the traditional hegemonic caretaking dividein which fathers provide economic support, while mothers provide Feldman childcare supportis dissolving in favour of more egalitarian co-parenting (Mackenzie, 2018;Palkovitz et al, 2014;Fulcher, 2015;Shirani et al, 2012, Kaplan & Knoll, 2019. Although the breadwinner-caregiver model has faded, the family system continues to influence modern families.…”

Intersectionality and fatherhood: Theorizing non‐hegemonic fatherhoods

“…Although Israeli familism devotes a central place to children and mothers, space for fathers is much more limited. While the participation of men in childcare and housework has risen somewhat in recent decades, it is still low compared to both women and men in other countries (Anabi, 2019;Kaplan & Knoll, 2019). The fact that family is a central value does not open a space for men to expand their role as fathers; instead, it enforces traditional divisions of gender roles.…”