Fatherhood essays

Fatherhood essays In her book Taking Sides, Ann Vail illustrates many issues plaguing our society today. Many of them are top priority issues that people immediately think of when they are asked what needs to be changed in the world today, or what problems are in the public eye. The issue I am concentrating on is Have Men Lost Their Sense of Fatherhood? This is the question to whether or not men still perform an active role in the raising of children. This could be in a two parent, conjugal family, or in a single parent family where the mother has custody. It questions whether or not men still take responsibility for children or if they are simply careless with whom they sleep and do not take responsibility if a child is born. It also takes into consideration whether the instance of fatherhood is lower across the socioeconomic playing field. Vail presents the two opposing viewpoints of David Blankenhorn, who takes the Yes view, with an excerpt from his book, America: Why Men Are Increasingly Viewed as Superfluous to Family Life; and Haya Stier and Marta Tienda, who take the No view, with their article, Are Men Marginal to the Family? Insights from Chicagos Inner City. Though both make good arguments I do not believe that Stier and Tienda present a strong, defendable case for the side that fatherhood is not declining. Their arguments seem to make excuses for why fathers are not providing as much and that fathers may be providing in other ways. However, they do not say how this actually helps make the sense of fatherhood present or stronger instead of just a new form of responsibility that is taken on by a biological parent. Due to this and preformulated ideas I am taking the side of Blankenhorn, in stating that the sense of fatherhood experienced by males in society today is indeed on a decline and though it does not effect all fathers (there are still some who are wonderful dads) I believe tha...