La dimensión social de la paternidad

La dimensión social de la paternidad (The social dimension of fatherhood)

The relationship between a father with his children -including its different roles, expectations and some results because of those interactions-, accounts not only aspects from the core of a particular family but also from certain broader characteristics associated with the culture and society in which it is inserted.

By using an interpretation that mixes religious and sociocultural aspects, in Latin America the image of men linked to a macho culture has widely existed, based in the popular conception of masculinity. In this context, the attributes that prevail are merely seduction and conquest, violence and aggression, and the attitude of labour, bringing the resources to his home. In this description, the woman, understood as a mother, is highlighted for her skill to give life, based in her moral strength and her daily and continuous effort for taking care of the housework and looking after the children.

Fatherhood removes partially this masculinity stereotype. The compromise and responsibility for children admit some gradients: while in some cases they reduce the absence, in others they impulse it. In other cases, depending on the children’s gender, there could be more or fewer concerns about the growing up process and their future. Finally, the mere reproductive and providing father’s function in some cases will be complemented with another one related to regulation, which demands more presence, taking a role that gives a moral pillar -a traditional view of what the father should be- even though he keeps a more distant relationship with the children than the mother.

This contemporary period of time has discovered a variety of possibilities about paternity. Although there will be some coherent figures with the above descriptions, the cultural transformations in our current society have influenced not only the roles and attributes linked to paternity but they have also changed the idea of family itself. It has made traditions and old conceptions much more flexible; besides, due to the social networks, it feeds and feeds back the notions about what a father should and should not be and do. His role can be more powerful and loved for taking part in household chores more than for being a provider, for educating his children not only from a rational dimension but also for an affective one, or for demanding a longer paternity leave.

It is hardly possible -and even desirable- to think that in the future parent’s roles should be totally equal. However, the multiplication of ideas about the concept of family, the massive incorporation of women to work and the cultural changes about the value of fatherhood do make these horizons possible with the bigger expectations about complementation of functions between fathers and mothers. From a perspective of equal social relationships, a way of thinking this new concept should include an equal implication; this means that both parents are equally necessary to raise the children. There are infinite combinations in every couple according to their skills, tastes, and possibilities, without a previous determination of tasks and functions. The most important aspect here is that there should be an equal commitment with the best of each one for making a proper contribution to the children’s needs (in both material and educational ways). The equality of implication means the same in the context of married or divorced couples, natural or adoptive, heterosexual or homosexual.

This reconversion of roles, functions, and values, which also involves legal and institutional changes, is a complex path and it is full of threatens for the parents. Besides, it strongly involves the couple relationships and not only the ones with the children. Thus, it is a challenge that presents difficulties, where traditional tasks and images demand new behavioural patterns. We cannot forget that the care and dedication to the children is an extremely complex duty but also one of the biggest privileges: protecting, educating and constantly being with them. It requires strengthening the art of teaching but first of all the human virtue of loving.

Jorge Atria Curi
Mayo 2016