Fathers’ experiences of paternity in an organisational context

The following Q&A discussion between researcher Shane Crabb and Anna Hayward, Director of Managing Maternity appears in the Spring 2008 issue of Maternity Matters.

It offers an overview of a study conducted by Shane Crabb and Dr. Lynne Millward Purvis, Work & Organizational Psychology Research Group, Department of Psychology, School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7HX Web link

Any enquiries regarding this specific research may be directed to Shane Crabb: shanecrabb@hotmail.com

Shane Crabb begins:

Traditionally, the focus of parenting research within the context of work has been on working mothers, and how maternity issues should be managed by employers.

However, the world of work is changing. The number of ‘dual-earning families’ has increased rapidly, with both individuals in a couple contributing to ‘breadwinning’ for their family unit.

Increasingly fathers are expected to adopt child-caring roles within many dual-earning families. Yet, there has been little research into working fatherhood up until now. The current research has asked men to write brief responses or tick boxes in order to inform organisations and governments of the types of issues that they should be considering when managing paternity leave provisions. There is currently little research into the thoughts, feelings and emotions of working fathers as they live through their paternal experiences.

Using in-depth interviews, more ‘personal’ information was gathered from a small sample of working fathers, by interviewing them both before and after the birth of their babies. Questions focused on how they perceived their work through this period and how they managed to balance both work and family. All of the men in this study were in positions of substantial responsibility, were married and had at least one child prior to this study.

The findings shed new light on issues surrounding paternity management, and allow organisations and governments to consider the actual experiences of paternal working men when making decisions on paternity leave policies and provisions in the future.

Anna Hayward: In your view, what are the main points arising from your research that are likely to be of interest to those looking at paternity in an organisational context?

SC: I feel that the research findings highlight one key issue that the paternity policy makers should consider when devising their provisions. That is, quite simply, men want to work.

It is evident from my research that these working fathers, despite being 100% committed to their families, also valued their work very highly.

I felt that these men looked to work as some sort of safe haven, a form of release from the additional pressures they faced at home from having a newborn child. It was quite clear that the men wanted to share the child-caring responsibilities with their wives, and did so when they were able to, but throughout the whole paternal process the men emphasised that their work was important to them also.

I concluded that work gave the men a sense of ‘masculine identity’; an identity that they may have felt was threatened by their internal desires to nurture their children. Men have always been seen as the ‘breadwinners’ of their families, and it seemed apparent that these men wanted to keep this part of their identity by emphasising their ability to provide financially for their families throughout their paternal period.

AH: You draw out some important differences between how fathers and mothers experience the pre and post birth period. How would you summarise these?

SC: I felt that the key aspect of how these men experienced their paternal period, which may differ from many mothers, is that they only engaged with the aspects that they could control and add value to.

It seemed that the men would only think about, and emphasise their ability to do, those aspects that they felt of use towards. In this respect, their work was adding value to the family (in the form of financial support), and they could control it to a certain extent, therefore the men emphasised their working roles throughout their interviews.

However, the men could not control or add any value towards the pregnancy, or the imminent birth of their babies, and consequently did not mention this much. I concluded that the men disengaged from such ‘uncontrollable’ aspects, as it was deemed a waste of their resources. The men felt that they would be of more value dedicating themselves towards the parts of the paternal period that they could do something about, and add value towards, such as their work, their preparations, and their future plans.

AH: It appears that the men in this study are trying to combine both new and traditional concepts of fathering post-birth. What’s your view of how well they are able to reconcile these roles?

SC: I don’t think that these men were ever fully able to combine both traditional (i.e. working) and new (i.e. child-caring) fathering concepts post-birth. Throughout the post-birth phase, the men seemed to constantly strive to combine their working and family roles by adopting more flexible working practices (e.g. working from home).

However, in doing this, the men found that they no longer had any guidance on which roles to adopt, leading to a form of role ‘conflict’ and feelings of guilt when unable to complete them effectively. When they were at work, the choice was simple – they did work. They had a place and time (i.e. the workplace and working hours) to guide them on when to be a worker, and when to be a father. However, in attempting to combine their caring and working roles, the men found themselves in situations where both their work and their family required their attention, and they no longer had any ‘work’ guiders to help them decide which role to fulfil.

So to summarise, I think that these men were never able to reconcile both work and family roles without some sort of inner conflict, and even some feelings of guilt. They felt guilty if they worked while their baby was crying, as they thought they were not being a good father. They also felt guilty when they attended to their family during working hours, because they felt they were not committing 100% to their work during work time.

AH: The research points to fathers feeling disengaged from work post-birth and that as a result there is a tendency to then overcompensate at work. What do you think drives this?

SC: I think this goes back to my answer to the first question, and centres on men wanting to retain a sense of masculinity.

Many theories of masculinity have stated that men want to be seen as competent at the roles deemed inclusive of a ‘masculine’ identity, and their working roles are very much apart of these.

The only man in my study to actually take the statutory two-week paternity leave entitled to him felt ‘out of the loop’ when returning to work. I see this as feeling detached from his sense of masculine identity, and when returning to work he wanted to restore it by overcompensating in certain areas. This individual, who was a project manager, sent extra emails and made additional visits to departments which he admitted were not necessary. This was his way of saying ‘Yes I have been out of the office, but now I’m back and I’m just as effective as I was before’. He was reclaiming that part of his identity which he felt had passed him by during his paternity leave, which, it is important to remember, was only two weeks away from the office.

AH: You suggest that fathers seem to appreciate flexibility around the time of birth rather than opting for paternity leave. Why do you think this is the case?

SC: I think for many men, being away from work for a significant amount of time means that they are without a very important aspect of their lives. Being without work for a prolonged period of time would mean that men would lose a prominent part of their identity, I feel, and they would rather keep work ‘ticking over’ while they attended to their fathering roles during their paternal period.

Also, this study has highlighted that, for these men, the negative aspects of taking paternity leave outweighed the benefits. The men stated that they would have lost out financially, as well as put additional pressure on their colleagues if they had taken the two weeks leave entitled to them. Why would they take paternity leave when they could just work a little more flexibly, do a bit of work here and there, and be an adequate worker and father at the same time?

The answer is they wouldn’t take it, but would instead continue to work when they were not preoccupied with their family roles, providing secondary caring support to their wives. As mentioned previously, all of these men made it very clear that work came a distant second to their families, but when they felt in control of their roles at home, they felt they had a license to take on a bit of work concurrently, and did so accordingly.

AH: Paternity leave was only taken up by 1 father in this study. In light of this, what’s your view on the additional paternity leave provisions?

SC: In regards to these findings, I feel that the additional paternity leave provisions will not be welcomed by all working fathers in the UK.

Quite simply, I feel it will be seen as too long a time, with too little a benefit for some men who cannot simply afford to be without their work for a full 26 weeks. Additionally, many career-driven men will not want to let the world of work pass them by for over 6 months, as there would be an abundance of negative career ramifications (e.g. lack of promotion, development opportunities).

Of course, it can be argued that career-driven women also experience these dilemmas, and I agree with this whole-heartedly. However, it is important to consider that men have always been expected to work by Westernised society, and therefore not having work as part of their lives may present more challenges for them than for women who, historically, have been expected to be the child-carers of the family, rather than the breadwinners.

It is encouraging to know that attitudes in our society are changing, and that men are beginning to embrace their parenting roles in light of more and more women entering the workforce.

However, in light of my findings, I still believe that more work needs to be done in this area, with society encouraging men to disengage from their work more. My participants definitely saw themselves still as the breadwinners of their families, rather than the primary carers.

Only in recent decades have men started to embrace their fathering roles, and the fact that their desires area being acknowledged by the additional paternity leave provisions, which offer dual-earning couples more choice over who adopts the parenting roles, should indeed be celebrated.

However, this study has shown me that men still feel that work is very much an important part of their identity, and it will be hard for them to let it go for a prolonged period of time. Two weeks was long enough for Matthew, the only participant to take paternity leave, before he started to get ‘itchy feet’ away from the office. My other participants wouldn’t even consider taking two weeks away from work, let alone 26 weeks.

So, in summary, I feel that the additional paternity provisions would be fully utilised when men begin to see the benefits of taking such leave – and how these outweigh the negatives of taking time away from work. Of course, having the opportunity to watch their children grow is the only incentive a father would need, but until they are able to ‘let go’ of work, and not have to worry about potential negative ramifications of taking such time away from it, I feel many men will prefer to continue working throughout their paternal period.

 

This Q&A draws on the findings of a paper presented at the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Occupational Psychology Annual Conference on 10th January 2008, of which the following summary appears on the BPS website: Fathers’ experiences of paternity life: Before and after child-birth in an organisational context

S. Crabb & L. Millward, Surrey University.

This study acknowledges that becoming a father in an organisational context is a potentially highly complex subjective consideration for men amidst contemporary societal changes to the meaning of masculinity
Pre- and post-birth narratives were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Smith, 2003) to identify transitional themes.