Paperback, 352 pages
Published May 19, 2020 by Harper Perennial.
The impetus for this book appears to have been personal, but Lockman is a trained therapist and provides a good survey of the available studies and data to flesh out the very personal complaints and societal trends behind the phenomenon of men and fathers doing less than women and mothers.
A well researched and referenced break down of how inequality persists among parents, that should probably be standard reading for every aspiring or recent parent.
This book served as a reality check for me, as it helps explain some of the frustration that comes from trying to be a dad that takes on his fair share of parenting duties. The reality is that parenting has always been hard, draining and required accommodations and compromises with work for mums and experiencing even a share of this invokes, well, all the rage. It also helped illuminate the patriarchal assumptions we've been socialised in and how they constrain my instincts and expectations.
There is some hope for progress in the book, but it'll require explicit communication between partners and men to view equitable fatherhood as desirable and important. At the very least it's encouraged me to up my game and helped me let …
A well researched and referenced break down of how inequality persists among parents, that should probably be standard reading for every aspiring or recent parent.
This book served as a reality check for me, as it helps explain some of the frustration that comes from trying to be a dad that takes on his fair share of parenting duties. The reality is that parenting has always been hard, draining and required accommodations and compromises with work for mums and experiencing even a share of this invokes, well, all the rage. It also helped illuminate the patriarchal assumptions we've been socialised in and how they constrain my instincts and expectations.
There is some hope for progress in the book, but it'll require explicit communication between partners and men to view equitable fatherhood as desirable and important. At the very least it's encouraged me to up my game and helped me let go of some unjustified frustrations that are simply rooted in unfair expectations that live in our subconscious but that I hold no string attachment to myself.
