Class-Based Masculinities: Divorce, Fatherhood, and the Hegemonic Ideal

• Published in: Fathering (Harriman, Tenn.) Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 165 - 190
• Main Authors: Catlett, Beth Skilken, McKenry, Patrick C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Harriman Men's Studies Press 22.03.2004
• Subjects: Child development; Children of divorced parents; Divorce; Father and child; Fathers; Gender; Human relations; Interpersonal communication; Job Skills; Joint custody of children; Males; Men; Parents & parenting; Personal relationships; Sex roles; Social classes
• DOI: 10.3149/fth.0202.165
• ISSN: 1537-6680

Historically, men's breadwinning not only has been a demonstration of their masculinity but also has been the most unifying element in fathers' lives. Breadwinning and economic support of children are inextricably bound together in men's sense of self. Breadwinning has justified men's lack of childcare and thus has been part of men's family dominance and the reproduction of gendered family relations (Coltrane, 1996; Hochschild, 1989; Townsend, 2002). For instance, Bernard (1972) commented on the nature of men's family entitlement when she referred to the phenomenon of "his" and "hers" marriages wherein men's good provider role was to be supported by the wife's emotional support, child-rearing, and various homemaking activities. Hochschild (1989) theorized a related source of male entitlement as she analyzed the greater work-family conflict experienced by wives compared to husbands in dual-work families. This greater conflict was seen as the result of the perceptions of both the husbands and wives that men's work was more important and therefore that household work was the primary responsibility of the wife. Thus men, in contrast to women, are seen as being afforded a variety of institutional and societal benefits in marriage. The loss of such marital benefits may prompt substantial shifts in men's family relationships. I'd like to think [my lawyer] did the best he could. I'd like to think that, but sometimes I wonder. There's a lot of things I told him that he didn't pursue like the mental instability of [[Jane]]. He never pursued that. I'm wondering if he did that because I wasn't very rich. I'm still paying my lawyer bill now, monthly installments. He knew I wasn't rich. I paid his retainer with my vacation pay... I'm just wondering, if I had tens of thousands of dollars, if I could have gotten him to say, "Well, look at this woman; she's crazy. Is she really capable of raising these children?" But nobody looked into it. She's on me to pay for some of the medical bills the kids have. You know, these are bills I don't have anything to do with. I don't have input on whether they should really go see a doctor... I'm going to pay those based upon her producing some sort of receipt that actually shows this money. I'm not going to pay it on her say-so... And so I told her, if you want to itemize everything out here, and I can verify that indeed you did have these medical bills, I'm not going to go against what the decree says. I told her, if you want to do this on a month-to-month basis and send me a clear copy of the receipts, I'll pay what I'm supposed to pay. But if you can't produce this stuff, don't ask me for it.