Abstract
This study explores how stay-at-home fathers (SAHFs) in Singapore, a slowly but steadily growing group, negotiate and perform a role that is hitherto relatively new and unfamiliar to them. Based on data from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 21 SAHFs and 9 spouses, it was possible to glean three overarching insights.
Firstly, economic reasons and parenting ideologies surpassed gender-ideologies in choosing parenting roles. Few SAHFs actively chose to become their children’s primary caregiver, but rather assumed the role out of economic necessity and a preference to raise their children without external support. As the traditional, gender-essentialist alignment of household roles and gender ideologies is disrupted as women’s employment and earnings rise, SAHFs adapted to these shifting circumstances through economic reasoning and a desire to be active and involved parents.
Secondly, despite not choosing to become SAHFs, many respondents learned skills and strategies over time to perform the role successfully and in a manner that was apparently “masculine” and “useful” to their family. The salience of masculinity was strongly evident among respondents, who articulated their roles and identities as SAHFs using language resonant with conventional and socially desirable ideals of masculinity, such as physical strength, leadership and power. Some respondents assembled new and alternative typologies of masculinity, instead highlighting traits such as adaptability, resilience and calmness in stressful situations. Many also differentiated their roles from those performed by women or mothers. Many respondents also emphasized the ways they sought to be “useful,” productive and purposeful in their roles by adding value to their family members’ lives.
Thirdly, powerful cultural scripts in Singapore prevent SAHFs and breadwinning mothers from fully embracing roles that they, due to economic or practically advantageous reasons, have decided to perform. Despite successfully performing their respective roles, many SAHFs continued to accept a subsidiary parenting position relative to their wives while breadwinning mothers continued to strongly value and prioritize motherhood. The SAHF-breadwinning mother model is hence not a total reversal of the conventional male breadwinner-female caregiver model, as traditional gender ideologies continued to have a place among a majority of respondents.
Policy implications from this study will touch on affording parents greater choice in choosing parenting roles, extending the duration of exclusive, non-transferable paternity leave instead of shared parenting leave, elevating the status of fathers through policy support and communications and updating workplace practices in support of fatherhood.
Read the report here.
Media Coverage