Ask any woman about her greatest challenges and somewhere on that list is finding balance. Whether a woman works, or chooses to be a stay-at-home mom, she’s going to be juggling a long list of demands for her time, energy, skills and attention. Study after study has found that these multiple demands are often the hardest on working moms, who have been found to consistently rank below men and women without children in terms of levels of happiness and satisfaction. A key reason often cited for this disparity is the lower level of male participation in the work of running and maintaining a household.
This could be changing, according to a new study from Boston College’s Center for Work and Family. Researchers there say the “new” dad has a more equal role with the “new” mom, and is just as stressed by the challenges of multiple roles. The report found that while traditional dads equated being a good father with the role of being “the breadwinner,” dads today are more focused on “being there, being present, spending time and being accessible.”
The report, titled "The New Dad: Exploring Fatherhood Within a Career Context," is a qualitative study of middle-income, first-time fathers that focuses on the area of men, careers, and fatherhood. The rising numbers of women in the workforce and employer downsizings have shifted men’s attitudes about parenting and workplace commitment, say the researchers.
Significant findings from the study include:
• Most fathers in the study confirmed that their self-image at work increased in a positive way after having children, with many fathers reporting that their new role as parents had enhanced their reputation, credibility and even career options.
• Although new fathers felt supported by their bosses regarding work-life flexibility, most did not arrange formal flexible work arrangements as new mothers sometimes do. Instead, these fathers used more informal, sometimes “stealth” approaches to balancing work and family issues.
• In many cases the men were not prepared for how much work it can be to take care of a young child. They choose to spend time with their children, often at the expense of personal activities they previously enjoyed. Often their priorities changed to focus more on family and less on work. In some cases they adjusted their ambitions for professional advancement and career to take into account their new responsibilities and joys.
• It is clear that after many years of struggle, women have earned more legitimacy in both the home and work spheres. For the most part, moving from one sphere to another, or having a foot in each for some periods of time, is now considered both legitimate and commonplace. In terms of stay-at-home dads, however, men have not experienced a similar revolution in terms of their role in the home and family sphere.
“Our study leaves us with the sense that a profound shift is taking place with today’s new dads. Overall, our research found fathers who were deeply committed to care-giving and sharing the work as evenly as possible with their spouses,” wrote the authors. “Men seem poised to embrace a new definition of fatherhood and to step up to the challenges and the rewards of parenting in a much fuller sense than was the case in the past.”
The study was authored by Boston College Center for Work and Family Executive Director Brad Harrington, CWF Senior Research Associate Fred Van Deusen and Jamie Ladge of Northeastern University.
The full study can be found at http://bit.ly/cZO5j8