The coronavirus pandemic: exploring expectant fathers' experiences. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The coronavirus pandemic: exploring expectant fathers' experiences. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)
- Main Title:
- The coronavirus pandemic: exploring expectant fathers' experiences
- Authors:
- Menzel, Alice
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: The Coronavirus pandemic raises significant concerns about pervasive social inequities and disparate gender relations, particularly between mothers/fathers. Indeed, the pandemic engendered a general retreat into traditional parenting roles across myriad, everyday, institutional, spaces, including workplaces, homes, and welfare/healthcare services. These effects have been especially marked for couples expecting a child. Visitor-restriction policies, implemented to curb viral-spread within healthcare settings, effectively 'barred' many expectant fathers in the UK (and elsewhere) from attending antenatal appointments, and even the birth of their child; milestone moments widely regarded as significant socio-cultural 'rites-of-passage' in fathers' transition to parenthood. Many pregnant women had to face these moments alone, sparking campaigns including #ButNotMaternity. This paper critically examines how such institutional responses exhibit a complex 'welfare trade-off' effectively (re)positioning fathers as spectators, rather than participants, in pregnancy/parenthood and risk embodying a potential U-turn to recent decades' emphasis on involved, equitable fatherhood. Drawing upon the accounts of expectant mothers/fathers in the UK reported in the popular press since March 2020 and the #ButNotMaternity campaign, it employs thematic social-media analysis to explore the emotional impacts of visitor-restrictions and the gendered, emotional governance of parenting amidstABSTRACT: The Coronavirus pandemic raises significant concerns about pervasive social inequities and disparate gender relations, particularly between mothers/fathers. Indeed, the pandemic engendered a general retreat into traditional parenting roles across myriad, everyday, institutional, spaces, including workplaces, homes, and welfare/healthcare services. These effects have been especially marked for couples expecting a child. Visitor-restriction policies, implemented to curb viral-spread within healthcare settings, effectively 'barred' many expectant fathers in the UK (and elsewhere) from attending antenatal appointments, and even the birth of their child; milestone moments widely regarded as significant socio-cultural 'rites-of-passage' in fathers' transition to parenthood. Many pregnant women had to face these moments alone, sparking campaigns including #ButNotMaternity. This paper critically examines how such institutional responses exhibit a complex 'welfare trade-off' effectively (re)positioning fathers as spectators, rather than participants, in pregnancy/parenthood and risk embodying a potential U-turn to recent decades' emphasis on involved, equitable fatherhood. Drawing upon the accounts of expectant mothers/fathers in the UK reported in the popular press since March 2020 and the #ButNotMaternity campaign, it employs thematic social-media analysis to explore the emotional impacts of visitor-restrictions and the gendered, emotional governance of parenting amidst the pandemic through the exclusion of particular (fathers') bodies within maternity care spaces. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Journal for cultural research. Volume 26:Issue 1(2022)
- Journal:
- Journal for cultural research
- Issue:
- Volume 26:Issue 1(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 26, Issue 1 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0026-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 83
- Page End:
- 101
- Publication Date:
- 2022-01-02
- Subjects:
- Pregnancy -- parenting -- covid-19 -- maternity care -- health -- emotions
Ethics -- Periodicals
Values -- Periodicals
Culture -- Periodicals
Intellectual life -- Periodicals
306 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
- DOI:
- 10.1080/14797585.2021.2002668 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1479-7585
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4965.847300
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 21290.xml