Many fathers are now providing hands-on, engaged care to babies and young children. This book draws on observations of, and interviews with, caregiving fathers, as well as analyses of fathers' memoirs and online blogs, to examine fathers' caregiving work as embodied practice and as lived experience.

'By placing embodied caregiving centre stage, Gillian Ranson offers an original contribution to debates about the nature of contemporary fatherhood. Her persuasive argument that the "grunt work" of caring for young children is transformative for individual men extends our current thinking. Essential reading for anyone interested in fathering'-Esther Dermott, University of Bristol, UK

'This is a beautifully crafted ethnography. Gillian Ranson [...] makes important contributions to scholarship and public understandings of fathering, embodied care, and the transformative effects of that care. Through its compelling evidence, this book confirms long-standing, but still urgent, feminist arguments about men's capacity to care.'-Andrea Doucet, Brock University, Canada

Autorentext
Gillian Ranson is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Canada. She has previously published in the areas of gender, families and paid employment including Against the Grain: Couples, Gender and the Reframing of Parenting (2010).

Inhalt

PART I: SETTING THE SCENE
Introduction

1. Research context

PART II: SEEING AND HEARING FATHERS
Introduction
2. 'Everything but breastfeeding'
3. 'It's a whole new level'
PART III: READING FATHERS

Introduction
4. 'You need to do the grunt work'
5. 'Making the case for a new kind of manhood'
PART IV: JOINING THE THREADS

Introduction
6. Fathers, caregiving and social change