Understandings and Experiences of Involved Fathering in the United Kingdom: Exploring Classed Dimensions

In the United Kingdom, current family policy seeks to prioritize fathering as a social issue. The author critically examines the assumptions and expectations that underpin this approach, comparing and contrasting it with data from qualitative interviews with fathers. It highlights the class-specific nature of fathers' everyday values and experiences, pointing to the way policy-sanctioned models of fatherhood are grounded in middle-class perspectives. The author also argues that the policy discourse of the “involved father” promotes a particular role for fathers as educational facilitators, overlooking the more mundane aspects of care most often associated with motherhood.