A Response for Fatherhood: What We Heard from Wisconsin Dads

Published on by AMY HENDRICKSON

 A Response for Fatherhood: What We Heard from Wisconsin Dads

What does it take to support today’s fathers? How do you define a successful fatherhood? Those are the questions research from UW-Madison Extension is answering with its Wisconsin Fatherhood Need assessment, a report now available here: https://parenting.extension.wisc.edu/fatherhood

Extension realized we were not serving fathers in our outreach programming at anywhere near the same extent that we had been serving mothers. Given the importance of fathers for child development and family well-being, fathers should be a major target audience for Extension programming as well as for other family-serving organizations and community service providers. Given that fathers are systematically underserved in these areas, we decided to intentionally assess what fathers in Wisconsin need and where the gaps are in current services before creating new programming.

“Parenthood means many different things to many different people but both mothers and fathers want to be successful when it comes to raising their children, being present and attentive to them, and setting them up for the future. We found that fathers have real concerns: basic life needs and resources, parenting support, systemic barriers to fatherhood, and challenges and consequences related to the legal system. Fathers need support to engage in their children’s lives in the ways they want and deserve to be,” said Dr. Margaret Kerr, Extension Human Development and Relationships Specialist and Assistant Professor in Human Development and Family Studies at UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology.

Dr. Kerr is one of the authors of the report along with colleagues at Extension’s Human Development & Relationships Institute. Extension researchers worked with a diverse set of fathers and community support agencies across Wisconsin to get a sense of what fatherhood means for today’s parents. Fathers of all kinds as well as support agencies identified three key learnings:

  • Defining Successful Fatherhood: Fathers shared what fatherhood meant to them: active involvement, nurturing relationships, and role modeling. Another finding emerged around fathers’ desire to be fathers and to be involved with their children, despite the numerous barriers and challenges fathers face.
  • What Wisconsin Fathers Need Most: Fathers’ needs emerged into four main themes: 1) Basic Life Needs and Resources; 2) Parenting Support; 3) Systemic Barriers to Fatherhood; and 4) Challenges and Consequences Related to the Legal System. Overall, fathers need more than just parenting support. Their ability to get their basic needs met and to successfully navigate the legal system (both criminal and family court) impede their ability to be fully engaged in their fatherhood role. This is further exacerbated by society’s attitudes and gender norms that negatively impact fathers.
  • Solutions and Response: Opportunities for future programming to better support fathers include: 1) helping fathers and father figures with parenting by designing programming and resources for fathers’ specific needs; 2) creating spaces for fathers to come together around their role as parents; 3) adapting existing parenting programming and resources to be more inclusive and welcoming towards fathers; 4) helping fathers advocate for their rights; and 5) increasing society’s value of fathers through broadly disseminating research and information about the importance of fatherhood for family well-being.

“UW-Madison Extension supports parents across Wisconsin to address the opportunities and challenges they’re facing day to day. We are committed to lifting up the voices of those who can benefit from the education, development, and peer learning needed to keep families connected and thriving,” said Dr. Danielle Hairston Green, Director of UW-Madison Extension’s Human Development & Relationships Institute.

Using the Research

In our work with fathers we recommend and recognize the research and its findings be used in the following ways:

  • Disseminate findings and collaborate across sectors. We suggest that community partners facilitate discussions with people in their organization and communities. Use this report, and corresponding products, to talk to others about father-related initiatives or the importance of valuing fathers.
  • Create and facilitate peer support for fathers. One of the most prevalent findings in this report across both fathers and community partners is the desire for fathers to learn from and support each other. We recommend that family serving agencies work to provide an environment for fathers to foster social connections and facilitate peer groups of fathers with shared experiences.
  • Hire and engage more men in family-serving professions. For people to feel welcome and included, family-serving organizations must have staff that reflects the diversity of the populations served. This necessitates recruiting, hiring, and retaining fathers as staff and program leaders.
  • Engage mothers and other parental figures in fatherhood work. In order for fathers to be successful, mothers and other parental figures need to partner in the process of elevating positive fatherhood. Mothers and other co-parents must reflect on gatekeeping behaviors and acknowledge the importance of involving fathers in their children’s lives.
  • Increase awareness of attitudes and stigmas that serve as barriers to father engagement. More broadly, systemic change within our communities and culture in which fathers live must be a priority. Partners should proliferate communities with positive messages and images of fatherhood, as well as research that highlights the critical importance of father engagement in family well-being.

More on the Wisconsin Statewide Fatherhood Needs Assessment is available at https://parenting.extension.wisc.edu/fatherhood including an executive summary and the full 121-page report.