The emotional toll of postfeminist fatherhood

Abstract

Postfeminism shapes the political economy of the workforce and household, constituting a re-entrenchment of traditional heterosexual gender regimes and the pressure to transgress them. Focusing on the understudied area of postfeminist masculinity, we analyze the emotional toll some fathers experience as a result of the fraught expectations to be the breadwinner, nurturing parent, and enlightened feminist spouse who completes equal domestic duties. Using empirical data of parents' participation in a family-based health intervention, we argue that the paradoxical expectation to enact traditional gender relations and to adopt gender egalitarianism is exhausting, upsetting, and confusing for fathers. By focusing on the affective dimensions of postfeminism, we demonstrate how working to achieve the impossible expectation of doing "it all," a bind that women have been caught in for centuries, takes an emotional toll on fathers and couples, leading to discontent at work and home, and in regard to their self-concept, parental role, and spousal relationship. We close by offering counter examples of fathers and couples who have disengaged from postfeminist parenting relations and have reached a state of contentment. Contrary to the alignment of postfeminism with positive affect, the experience of resisting postfeminist resulted in feelings of joy, pride, and satisfaction.

Organizing male infertility: Masculinities and fertility treatment

“…Organization Studies has further focused on parenthood, fatherhood, and paternity within organizational culture and practices (Burnett et al, 2013;Gatrell et al, 2021;Murgia & Poggio, 2013); on the emotional toll of fathers embracing postfeminist masculinities (Gruson-Wood et al, 2021); and on organizational discourses relating to family oriented male identities including the invisibility of the bodies of fathers in organizations (Kangas et al, 2019). While acknowledging the importance of these contributions, our research is more precisely on masculinity in relation to the condition of infertility.…”

“…Focusing back on OS, other research has studied male bonding in the workplace (Hawkins, 2015); the creation of male‐only networks (van den Brink & Benschop, 2014); the enactment of heroism and the distancing from women at work (Kelan, 2018); on how men reframe privilege in female‐dominated occupations (Schwiter et al., 2021); and on how expatriate academic fathers experience work‐life balance (Dickson & Dickson, 2021). Organization Studies has further focused on parenthood, fatherhood, and paternity within organizational culture and practices (Burnett et al., 2013; Gatrell et al., 2021; Murgia & Poggio, 2013); on the emotional toll of fathers embracing postfeminist masculinities (Gruson‐Wood et al., 2021); and on organizational discourses relating to family oriented male identities including the invisibility of the bodies of fathers in organizations (Kangas et al., 2019). While acknowledging the importance of these contributions, our research is more precisely on masculinity in relation to the condition of infertility.…”

Parental leave‐taking and perceptions of workers as good parents

“…However, postfeminist fatherhood involves not only breadwinning but being equal partners and nurturing dads (Gruson-Wood et al, 2021). Attitudes toward fathers have shifted over time with increasing support for the idea that being a father is the most important role in life and belief that working fathers can establish good relationships with their children (Churchill & Craig, 2021).…”

The problem of heteronormativity in family-based health promotion: centring gender transformation in Ontario, Canada

“…Even as cultural ideas about women and men become more progressive, research shows that many fathers remain entrenched in the “greedy” neoliberal overworkforce (Cha and Weeden, 2014 ; Weeden et al, 2016 ). Paternal overwork leaves mothers as proximal figures while fathers disengage from the work of family life, including health (Gruson-Wood et al, 2022 ; Miller, 2019 ).…”