New fatherhood – Dr. Dragan Stanojevic

We wanted to find out what the profession can say about fatherhood, then and now. As an interlocutor, we have chosen a man who is currently, perhaps, the only one among sociologists who deals with this topic. Dr. Dragan Stanojevic is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. He graduated from two study groups: first at the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, and then at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He defended his doctorate on the topic „Shaping a new fatherhood through the practices of fathers in Serbia“ in 2015 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, under the mentorship of prof. Dr. Smiljka Tomanović. His research work is focused on family relationships, youth and children, education, social inequalities, and social integration.

Dragan, how did this topic come about? Actuality, need or something else?
The topic of fatherhood is presently very current in the sociology of the family. One of the reasons is that traditionally the private sphere belonged almost exclusively to women, so when parenting was researched, it was researched from a women’s perspective. Feminism has also contributed to the actualization of the multiple burden of women, as reconciling the private and public spheres has been far more difficult for women than for men. Meanwhile, a lack of men’s perspectives in private sphere research has been noted. As the data indicated that the participation of men in parental responsibilities is gradually increasing, it became interesting and important to examine how they feel in this field, why they are more interested in interacting with the child, and how they harmonize different spheres of their lives. family, partnership, free time). Since this is a doctoral thesis, I came to the topic with the support of my mentor, Professor Smiljka Tomanović.

Who were the respondents?
The study has two parts. The first, which includes a representative sample of fathers in Serbia, based on which I tried to identify which fathers are more active around their children, and the second part, in which interviews were conducted with 24 fathers belonging to the so-called type. „New fatherhood“, which means 1. that they are involved in parental responsibilities at the same level as their spouses/partners, 2. that they are involved at the same level in household responsibilities (cleaning the house, cooking lunch, dinner, etc.), 3 that they have strong values ​​of gender equality, and 4. that their parental identity is very important.

What is a „new fatherhood“?
New fatherhood is not a fully defined concept, but it can be said to indicate a contemporary phenomenon in which the private sphere and parenthood are becoming increasingly important to men. Compared to traditional fatherhood, where the father did not deal with minor children at all, but was a moral role model, or the father during modern times (in our country intensively during socialism) when the key role of the father was to provide for the family and play with children. Today we are increasingly witnessing the emergence of a new sensibility among men who want to be involved in all aspects of their children’s upbringing. Broadly speaking, the new sensibility of the relationship with the child arises due to the changing role of men in modern society. There are three key reasons for this – changes in value frameworks related to gender equality, changes in the position of men in the labor market and changes in partnerships that are more egalitarian and volatile. While modernism still firmly guaranteed a better position in the labor market for men, late modernism in which we live is increasingly gender equalizing (although far from living in a society of equal gender opportunities), calling into question the exclusive role of men as breadwinners. On the other hand, marriage and partnership are increasingly unstable (expressed through more frequent divorces and dissolutions of cohabitation), so that the previous identities of men as „breadwinners“ and as „head of the family“ or „family man“ are not guaranteed. That is why, more and more often, the relationship with a child is perceived as the only lasting relationship, and that is why more is invested in him. It should be said that the „new fatherhood“ does not carry with it the value component „better“, nor that other models of fatherhood represent „bad“ parenting.