Call Me Daddy: How Professional/Managerial Men Craft and Enact Their Fatherhood Identities

Abstract

Historically, the thrust of work-family research has focused on women’s challenges with managing their career versus family identities. However, men are now struggling to make sense of what it means to be a father, and meet the conflicting demands of being breadwinners and nurturing fathers. In this study, we investigate how men envision and enact their fatherhood identities through interviews with five first-time expectant fathers and five new fathers who work in professional/managerial careers. We uncover a variety of fatherhood role ideologies, fatherhood identities, and several organizational factors that help or hinder men’s ability to successfully combine career and family.