A Life Course Perspective on Fatherhood and Family Policies in the United States and South Africa

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, I develop a framework to analyze and to understand men’s work and family roles in multicultural societies with histories of inequality. I draw upon a life course perspective–including the concepts of reciprocal continuity, linked lives, and timing of lives (Elder, 1995)–for the basic components of the framework. For each concept, I examine lived experiences of and effect of social structure on poor fathers in South Africa and the United States. In both societies, nonresidential fatherhood emerges from a complex interplay of subordination by race and class, dynamic political economies, and family dynamics. Paternal absence is shaped by migrant labor and coping with un/underemployment, imprisonment, military service, desertion, and divorce. Finally, I offer a set of questions for future comparative research on men’s work and family roles in low-income communities.