At a fieldwork visit to one of the groups that will feature in this book, a group of young men were having dinner at a community youth centre. The project workers had cooked the meal which had been promptly devoured by the six young men who were attending. One by one the young men dropped their plates into the sink, leaving them there, unwashed. One of the project workers asked, casually, ‘Who washes up in your houses?’ The majority of the young men replied, ‘My mam’. Someone piped up with ‘It’s women’s work’. The project worker replied, ‘But both men and women eat so it should be equal between who clears up’. Nothing more was said. A short time later, each young man, in turn, returned to the sink and washed up a plate and set of cutlery.
As that encounter played out before me, I realised that in those seemingly innocuous moments I had witnessed some of what occurs within community groups for young men who are fathers. The young men were challenged, in a very quiet and respectful manner, about their gendered beliefs about household chores. No one was told off or lectured, yet they changed their response and behaviour as a result. That experience encapsulated for me the promise that groups can offer as spaces where gender is done, but also ‘un-done’ (Butler 2004), and this book will explore and unpack the promise (and challenges) of such groups, exploring the mechanisms that facilitate changes such as the one described above and the promise this holds for gender within family life.
Background to the Research
Research about fatherhood has been a growing area within the social sciences in recent decades. There is now a strong body of literature around fatherhood, and the various aspects that intersect with the lives of men who have children, such as working patterns (Miller 2017), caring (Hunter et al. 2017), emotions (Chin et al. 2011) and impact on children (Cabrera 2016). Much of this work has incorporated gendered perspectives, allowing consideration of the structures of society that underpin and shape much of how parenting, including fathering, is constructed. Young men who are fathers have, however, historically received less attention in academic research (as well as in practice and policies), although interest in the lived experiences of these young men has increasingly begun to attract the attention of scholars. Much of the work that does exist about young men who are fathers explores the transitions of young men as they manage the dual identities of becoming adults and becoming fathers (Neale and Lau Clayton 2011), as well as the importance they attach to fatherhood (Deslauriers 2011; Weber 2012), the barriers they may face in accessing support and the resources needed to be the parents they aspire to be (Neale and Davies 2015, 2016). Much of this work has focused on the fatherhood/youth experience but there has been little investigation of the gendered aspects of parenting, nor extensive exploration of the role of masculinity within the lives of these young men. The growth of insight into the lives of young men who are fathers has coincided with the increasing visibility of a small bank of community-based group work bringing young men together and exploring the positive possibilities that peer support might offer them.
In the absence of statutory services due to austerity agendas and public-sector cutbacks, support is increasingly being provided by community groups (Clayton et al. 2016; Churchill 2013) and ‘The challenges of acknowledging and responding to the unique needs of young fathers are all the greater in a climate of reduced funding for statutory services’ (Davies and Neale 2015: 337). Much of this community work is spearheaded by charities and other third-sector organisations who are deeply embedded within their communities and can therefore offer bespoke support. Despite this burgeoning role of the third sector in various aspects of social life, we know very little about the type of support that community groups offer to young parents, and specifically to young men who are fathers.
This book seeks to explore the role of such groups in supporting young men who are fathers and to understand some of the gendered mechanisms at work within these settings. Parenting appears to remain a feminised space, with men reporting feeling marginalised from aspects of reproduction and child-rearing despite their desires to be involved (Dolan and Coe 2011). This context is problematic both for men who feel excluded and for women who feel burdened (Hanna et al. 2016). Groups for young men who are fathers can provide a space in which identities can be made and re-made, helping to challenge unhelpful gendered perceptions.
The Supporting Young Dads (SYD) Study
The discussion and findings in this book are based on research with three young fathers’ groups. Brief findings from the first stage of this work were reported at a Supporting Young Dads event in June 2016 (Hanna 2016). Young men who are fathers are defined within this text as aged under 25 with children to whom they are biologically related. The three groups selected for this research were based in Yorkshire (Leeds), the North-East (Gateshead) and Scotland (Edinburgh) and all operate in urban areas defined as experiencing multiple deprivation. These areas were similar in terms of population make-up; apart from one Black and minority ethnic individual the young men were white working class and most were of low socio-economic status. The research explored the experience of group-based support with both the young fathers themselves and key stakeholders —those who had founded, organised or run the groups. The research adopted an inductive qualitative approach, prioritising interviewee perspectives and language to develop interpretations which remain faithful to interviewee accounts while later connecting these to relevant theoretical concepts.
All the stakeholders were employed in the third sector; some may have managed or founded the projects rather than working directly with the young men. Stakeholder interviews were conducted at the community settings in which the groups operate, with the exception of one which was conducted at the university. Six stakeholders, five men and one woman, were interviewed, four in pairs and two individually in accordance with their preferences. Fifteen young men were interviewed, which reflects the relatively small population from which young men who are fathers are drawn (the number of men under 25 who have children is not formally recorded, making exact assessment of the population challenging) and the perceived difficulties of recruiting young men for research (Reeves 2007; Braye and McDonnell 2012; Swann et al. 2003). This research offers insight into groups otherwise hidden from the public gaze, focusing on gender-sensitive support for young men. The benefits that groups could offer young men who have children have previously been highlighted (see Sherriff 2007; Hansom and Nur 2010; Deslauriers et al. 2012) but in the UK until now there has been no specific investigation of their experience, values and impact.
The young men ranged in age from 15 to 25 with a variety of living situations, including some who no longer had access to their children due to care proceedings. Most of the young men had one child although some had a number of children (precise details of ages and number of children have not been included in order to ensure anonymity given the relativ...