CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Dezso, Dora |
|---|---|
| Title | EMBRACING CHILDCARE: ACTIVE FATHERS IN CONTEMPORARY HUNGARY |
| Summary | This thesis explores how active fathers practice parenting and how they relate to their parenting role in dual-earner households in contemporary Hungary. I use semi-structured interviews with 14 middle-class fathers in their late thirties, in Hungary’s capital city, Budapest to investigate active fathers’ lived experiences. I find that active fathers adopt stereotypical gender roles and enjoy doing care-work, in line with Western research which describes the “involved father” (Gerson 1993). The Western canon of family sociology can be applied to the Hungarian context, while using for example the notions of parents’ interchangeability and fathers as “mothers’ helpers” (e.g. Coltrane 1989). Yet, active fathers also feel ambivalent about their parenting role. Their stories expose their mixed feelings about their own practices and identities, and the ways in which they are related to the pervasive ‘breadwinner – homemaker ideology’ (Fraser 1997). Finally, active fathers challenge the ‘hegemonic masculine ideal’ (Connell 1995) by ‘de-gendering’ homemaking and childrearing as they develop an alternative masculinity, which finding complies with Coltrane’s earlier research. |
| Supervisor | Fodor, Éva |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/dezso_dora.pdf |
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