The Role Of A Father In Social, Psychological And Financial Contexts - Essay Example

The Role Of A Father In Social, Psychological And Financial Contexts There had been substantial changes in the role of father in social, psychological and financial contexts relating to the family over the last century. This change has been observed in relation with the changing status of mothers in the family, the increased knowledge on the parental needs of the children and other socio-economic factors. In general, the role of fathers has raised its status more from mere bread winners. Their influence on the various developmental needs of children has been analysed by modern science and the parents are educated to have their role upgraded as per the requirements. In the context of these developments of fatherhood, the objective of this essay is to analyse the historic development of ideologies and policies pertaining to fatherhood. In the new era of parenthood, a stage has evolved where the fathers share equality in the deliverance of responsibilities towards children. Modern fathers are found to attend Lamaze classes, attend to the routines of children and study their developmental needs. However, the development of this new era of parenthood has evolved during the ‘Machine age’. ( Hays, 1998, 1560). Machine Age refers to the period between two world wars. The influence of the adverse conditions which emerged after the First World War the intense developmental strategies of different governments during that period would have accelerated this change. There had been ample researches done on the changing ideological, policy wise developments in fatherhood with relevance to history. The ideological applause that present day fathers of today receive for their increased role with children has been crtisised by Ralph LaRossa. He has defined fatherhood as the social responsibility of every father despite the circumstances (LaRossa, 1997,287). Adding to the ideological relevance of fatherhood, modern science has evaluated its importance in the development of children. The psychological development of children exposed to different levels of fatherhood was reviewed by (Phares, 1992 , 387-412). In this study the result suggested in importance of fathers in the various developmental aspects of children. While referring to the prehistoric times, there is a general belief that fathers spent most of time hunting and in search in other sources of food, while mothers looked after children. Burgess (2008) has argued that this belief was true only in the case of few tribes wherein the case of many other primitive tribes both the genders shared the duty of hunting and fathers had substantial role in rearing children. This argument is substantiated by Burgess through the point that as crawling was a dangerous task to be done by the primitive children with relevance to the dangerous situations, fathers used to carry them. There are historic evidences pertaining to the fact that history has seen a period where a culture was developed in which fathers considered it to be a pride to be close with the children. However, in cases of communities involved wars and other offensive activities the fathers were forced to be away from their children (Burgess, 2008). In general it can be concluded that in the prehistoric period fatherhood was influenced by the cultural, occupational and ideological peculiarities of the communities. In the pre-industrial period, Christianity and Rationalism advised the fathers to be detached leaders in the family (Burgess, 2008). However these movements could not make considerable impact in the status of fatherhood. In Northern Europe, due to the peculiarities in the family setup fathers had almost had equal roles as mothers had. This was because the culture of larger extended families didn’t evolve in this area till the nineteenth century. Adding to this, the general scenario was that grandparents died before grandchildren were born. Moreover the process of migration was much intense in this period disrupting the neighborhood networks. Women were involved in trades like weaving and brewing and thus fathers in this period were involved in parenting process. There are even lullabies available which written in this time to be sung by fathers proving their role in child care. One another factor which ruled fatherhood in this era was that general modes of life were highly seasonal. In the winters fathers could manage to be away from the lighted home only for few hours. In summers both the parents would be out in field with the children ensuring the sharing of parenthood. Limited health care facilities in that era led to the death of 8% of mothers during delivery. Statistics bring out the fact that during 1599-1811, 24.1% of children lived with lone fathers (Burgess, 2008). In the industrial era, when industrial revolution developed in England, it was found that in some places mothers and children worked in factories when fathers took care of the home. However this was not a generic scenario. The further development of industrialisation made the fathers get involved in the industrial work and keep them away from home. This trend continued and developed in the 20th Century. Women thus became increasingly involved with children and men became de-skilled (Burgess, 2008). The developments like Imperialism, World War and pother political scenarios contributed in taking away fathers from the responsibilities of fatherhood. Thus the role of fathers evolved to be merely of bread winners. In the 21st Century, women started to achieve greater roles in politics, skilled labored industries and in all other realms of modern work force. The involvement of men at home and with children has undergone a social botheration. Fathers increasingly understand their importance in rearing children. The development of technology has made available modern resources for leisure at home itself. This has encouraged men to spend more time at home. The corporate world is also offering many possibilities of working from home helping the fathers to stay at home. Increased possibilities foe women to earn more than men have also led to a cultural evolution in parenthood. With all these factors contributing together the role of men as fathers has developed through scientific intervention and social developments. Read More