Family Futures

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nsuring

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amily

alance

contemporary fatherhood. Divorce rates have now stabilized

and even declined in several countries, partly in connection

with the decline in marriage rates. Nonetheless, divorce, sepa-

ration in consensual unions and re-partnering have changed

the nature of fathers’ families, and they remain a significant

contributing factor in the growth of the number of fathers

living away from their children in different households.

Children are now more likely than in previous generations

to experience more than one father figure throughout their

life course. Some biological fathers may cease to reside with

the children of their first relationship, thereby increasing the

potential for marginalization in family life.

Although non-residential fathers themselves are a mixed

group, evidence shows that they tend to have poorer physi-

cal and emotional well-being (higher levels of depression and

alcohol use) than divorced men without children and fathers

in intact families. It is not known whether the stressful experi-

ences of non-residential fatherhood, as well as divorce, create

these problems or if non-residential fathers themselves have

pre-existing and enduring difficulties.

Working conditions, in particular excessive hours, can be

a barrier to active fatherhood. In rich income countries the

work-family debate of the 1990s was dominated by discus-

sion about the impact on family well-being of long weekly

working hours – the ‘long work hours culture’. Despite the

slowdown in economic activity in many regions of the world,

the working life of parents, particularly fathers and increas-

ingly also mothers, can make sustaining a meaningful family

life hard to manage.

Globally, female participation rates are highest in North

America followed by Europe and Central Asia; sub-Saha-

ran Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean; Asia and the

Pacific; and the Middle East and North Africa.

The preva-

lence of the male breadwinner family model has diminished

in those countries which experienced the expansion of female

participation in the labour market. But still, Organisation for

Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) figures

show that paternal hours in paid work are much longer than

for mothers. For example, while a considerable proportion

(nearly a third) of fathers in couple families work more

than 45 hours per week (especially in Turkey and Poland),

the proportion of mothers working long hours is relatively

small (around 9 per cent), except in Greece (19 per cent)

and Turkey (38 per cent). South Korea, the United States and

Japan make up the top three countries (in order) where the

overwhelming majority of both male and female employees

usually work 40 hours or more per week.

Support measures

There has also been an emergence of specific father-targeted

measures to support parenting and discourage excessive

working in several Asian countries. For example, despite

Japan’s economic downturn and cultural expectation of

work devotion, company-level incentives explicitly signal-

ling changes in fathers’ behaviour have been introduced.

These measures need to be situated in the regional context

of rapid fertility decline since the beginning of the twenty-

first century, with the total period fertility significantly

below replacement level in many Asian countries: lower

than 1.0 in Taiwan and between 1.2 and 1.6 in Japan, South

Korea and China.

Under Japan’s Act on the Advancement of Measures to

Support Raising the Next Generation of Children (2003),

employers are obliged to establish two-to-five-year action

plans by 2015 for improving the employment environment

to support balancing work and child-raising. The Government

Fathers are increasingly expected to be accessible and nurturing to their children, as well as supporting them economically

Image: The Fatherhood institute