Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: 1980s’ The Cosby Show broke all molds for the negative representation of black people in media by supplanting them with an upper middle-class family whose forays into high culture and demonstration of familial values served to dignify blackness on television. Fast forward twenty years and the black family prevalent on television remains in less essentialist roles. “Reality” television has even granted a peek into the supposed unscripted lives of black families, giving audiences a live look into how “real” black family life might conform or dissent from “Cosby-esque” representation. With The Cosby Show serving as a foundation for comparison and contrast, this article seeks to explore the themes of fatherhood, class and the broad subject of fundamentalist principles of family displayed in Run’s House and Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I measure the strength of various factors in predicting teen fatherhood. Due to the prevalence of single-parent families resulting in an increased risk of poverty and decreased social capital for children, better understanding of early fatherhood is beneficial for researchers, therapists, policymakers and other professionals. Similar to Warr’s (1993) analysis on peer and parental influence on deviance, and Thornberry and colleague’s (1997) analysis of home and personal characteristics, I use path analysis to examine the effect of multiple domains (home environment and peer influence and personal deviance) on the transition to teen fatherhood. Results show that personal deviance, leading to off-timed fatherhood, is a product of a combination of deviant peer influence and a negative home environment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While existing research on parenthood and employment focuses largely on mothers, a handful of studies reveal that men’s labor market earnings increase as they become fathers. These studies, however, have focused on family-based explanatory mechanisms of the fatherhood wage premium. In contrast, the current study analyzes the occupational contexts of the fatherhood wage premium. I ask: Do men in women’s jobs take an accelerated ride up the glass escalator by virtue of becoming a parent? Using data from the 1983 to 2002 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and individual fixed effects models, I find that as the proportion of women in men’s jobs increases, and as men move towards token-status, the rewards for becoming a father increase as well. Of men in female-dominated jobs, such as those in elementary school teaching positions, fathers of three children earn about three dollars more per hour than childless men—a difference that amounts to more than six thousand dollars per year. Because estimates are from models that include individual fixed effects, a host of control variables, as well as occupational variables that have not been included in previous studies, differences in average wages result primarily from the gender composition of men’s jobs. Fatherhood does not come with equal rewards to all men. Instead, as men begin to stand out as the minority in their job, the rewards for becoming a parent increase.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The World Bank’s gender and development staff are promoting fatherhood and family strengthening. My paper asks why and how, and it explores the consequences of this interest in fatherhood for feminist debates about social reproduction and international political economy. I focus on family stability initiatives funded by the Bank in Buenos Aires, currently presented as a best-practice example of gender and development lending. Using interviews and project fieldwork I examine the origins of this interest in responsible fatherhood as a solution to tensions between women’s employment and the privatization of social responsibility under neo-liberalism, before exploring the interaction between domestic feminists, NGOs, and the Bank that facilitated the emergence of the Argentine policy. In this way I seek to link the Bank’s new concerns with fatherhood and family strengthening to the perceived crisis in gender relations sparked by neoliberal restructuring, and to the development community’s interest in the gendered forms of inclusion and arrangements of social reproduction required for markets to function.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Cultural understandings of fatherhood are slowly changing. Yet, providing for one‘s family is still seen as an important element of "good fatherhood." Unlike mothers who incur a wage penalty, fathers tend to garner an earnings premium. Previous studies have found positive effects of children on men's earnings in the United States, Britain, Australia, Germany, Denmark and Norway. This paper expands the focus of previous studies, examining the fatherhood premium cross-nationally. Findings are discussed in the context of different welfare state strategies. Employing data from the Luxembourg Income Study, I examine data from 9 European countries, Canada, the United States, and Australia. Separate OLS regressions are run within each country. The findings support the expectations based on the Welfare State context to some extent. The largest premia net of controls are found in conservative strong male-breadwinner countries Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, although not in the Netherlands. In strong liberal strong breadwinner countries, such as the United States, Britain and Canada, fatherhood has also a positive impact on earnings. In the modified breadwinner state group, a premium exists in France, but not Belgium. In line with expectations, no net association between fatherhood and earnings is found in weak male breadwinner welfare states.