Social Rules that Provide for Fathers

In all human cultures there is some sort of father in the typical family, either the biological father or a male maternal relative, who acts in ways that all societies would agree are paternal.^ ^ Anthropologists suggest that biological fathers in particidar have an important parenting role in societies where family life is strong, women contribute to subsistence, the family is an integrated unit of parents and offspring working for the same goal, and men are not preoccupied with being warrio...

 Stereotype of Fathers in Advertising

In a recent study of sitcoms, the National Fatherhood Initiative found that fathers were eight times more likely than mothers to be portrayed negatively. In fact, if you just think of the most prominent television dads, you'll find what In fact, if you just think of the most prominent television dads, you'll find what the NFI's study—and a lot of other research—has found: that most of them are outwitted or shown up by their wives, ridiculed by their children, and portrayed as complete inc...

 Fathers Underepresented in Children's Stories

The very first article I ever had published appeared in Newsweek and was called "Not All Men Are Sly Foxes." It was all about what I perceived to be the negative stereotyping of fathers in children's literature. I spent an entire day in the children's section of my local library talking to the librarians and reading children's books, and found that dads were almost completely absent. In the vast majority of children's books, a mom is the only parent, while the dad—if he appears at all—was...