Fathers, adolescent daughters and gender in a low-income South African community

Abstract

Knowledge about father-adolescent daughter relationships is mostly based on research in North-American and European contexts. Furthermore, it tends to rely on either fathers' or daughters' perspectives, and not on dyadic data. Informed by a social constructionist perspective, this study investigated the fatherhood constructions of fathers and adolescent daughters in a South African low-income community. We used Charmaz' social constructionist grounded theory method. Forty-two interviews were conducted separately with fourteen fathers and their adolescent daughters. Five conceptual categories were identified: (i) Predominance of fathers' provider role; (ii) Fathers and daughters having an 'understanding' in which daughters apparently complied with fathers authoritarian positions; (iii) explicit expressions of affection were mostly limited to special occasions; (iv) Fathers wished a better future for their daughters and attempted to keep them on track to such a future and (v) lastly, Fathers' expected daughters to follow their instructions and not their bad examples. Our findings highlight the influential and constricting role of dominant masculine and feminine gender notions in the discourses and practices of the fathers and adolescent daughters in our study. However, some evidence of contestations were present that suggests the potential of a shift towards more equitable gender relations.

‘Drinking with respect’: Drinking constructions of men who live in a Cape Winelands farm community in South Africa

“…Our participants, however, gave no indication that they considered the detrimental effects of excessive alcohol use on their bodies, nor on their families. The latter contrasts with the reports of female partners and adolescent daughters in this community that men’s excessive drinking over weekends impacts negatively on the families of these men (Adams, 2014; Lesch and Scheffler, 2015a).…”

“…Although the harsh tone in this last quote is not reflective of all the participants, it does illustrate the paternalist, autocratic and physically punishing approach that fathers in this research community tend to adopt towards parenting their children (Lesch and Scheffler, 2015a). Research also suggests that they are inclined to view their role as a father to primarily involve financial provision and that they tend to underestimate their influence on children’s life trajectories (Lesch and Scheffler, 2015a).…”

“…Further factors that assisted us in understanding the participants’ worlds and meanings and therefore enhanced the study’s credibility were the following: the first author (E.L.) is a first-language Afrikaans speaker, has grown up on a farm in the Western Cape and has been conducting research in the specific research community for the past 18 years (e.g. Lesch and Scheffler, 2015a, 2015b; Lesch and Furphy, 2013). She was therefore familiar with the community context, norms and colloquial language.…”

Thinking About Data With Grounded Theory

“…As the distance increases between researchers and participants’ lives, examining positionality is a crucial aspect of developing methodological self-consciousness. 7 In their grounded theory study of South African low-income fathers and teenage daughters, Elmien Lesch and Frederika Scheffler (2016) raise concerns about their positionality in relation to the research participants. Race, class, gender, and age in addition to their assumptions about fatherhood enter the dynamics of the content and collection of data.…”