You can't eat love: constructing provider role expectations for low-income and working-class fathers

Fathering, Fall, 2004 by Kevin M. Roy

Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and both interviews and field notes were coded for fatherhood themes with the QSR NUDIST qualitative data analysis program. I re-read interview texts and coded texts using a simple scheme with sensitizing thematic concepts (Patton, 2002). Profiles were developed for each father to help identify divergent or common patterns of negotiating provider role expectations. I paid particular attention to a full range of prescribed, subjective, and enacted roles (Deutsch & Krauss, 1965, cited in Cazenave, 1979), which gave me a comprehensive view of provider roles based on reported expectations from fathers (and their reports of their partners), fathers' opinions about providing, and fathers' behavior as providers. Finally, a conceptual framework for selective coding was developed that linked unrelated codes to the core category of providing. For example, I was able to relate men's discussion of "being there" for their children to the emphasis on providing, as well as explore the variety of strategies that men used as alternatives to the provider role.

RESULTS

Fathers in this sample were similar with regard to their demographic backgrounds. All 77 of these men grew up in primarily blue-collar families in the Rust Belt of the Midwest, and most were socialized to the work their fathers did--factory jobs through local unions, manual labor, and highly skilled operators of machinery (Roy, in press-a). Across racial/ethnic groups and locations, fathers attained comparable educational status (finishing high school or dropping out just prior to graduation) and aspired to "good" jobs in manufacturing and construction trades.

Fathers were proud of their status as full-time workers, met obligations to their children, and often were uninterested in searching for better employment options. I coded fathers as "successful" working-class providers if they met their own expectations and made consistent financial and material contributions to their children. About 33 fathers (43% of overall sample) met their provider role expectations. Of these men, 82% (n = 27) were incarcerated fathers from the work release program in Indiana, where employment was required by the facility as an aspect of the program. Another 57% of fathers (n = 44) were "unsuccessful" lowincome providers who did not contribute to families on a consistent basis. Men from the Chicago parenting program constituted 77% (n = 34) of all men who were not successful providers, reflective of fathers' interest in job training sessions through the program. Racial differences were evident, although they were confounded with participation in either program. Fathers of color accounted for 93% (n = 41) of men who were not consistent providers for their children; three additional nonproviders (7%) were European American. Of successful providers, 67% (n = 22) were European American, and 33% (n = 11) were African American.

In the following sections, I examine the experiences of successful and unsuccessful providers. I explore the social contexts for their provider opportunities, including the nature of their jobs and status of family relationships. I also describe perspectives and negotiations over paternal providing between mothers and fathers. including critiques of the provider role myth that could dominate men's attempts to attain the package deal of fatherhood.