Working-Class Gay Dads: Queer Stories About Family and Work
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Date
2024-01-10
Authors
Mather, Nathan
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Context: Recent cultural and legal changes support gay men becoming fathers. Existing research with gay dads has focused almost exclusively on those in the upper middle-class. However, national estimates suggest that working-class gay dads represent a notable proportion of LGBT+ parents. Given the financial barriers to gay fatherhood and that parenting and working experiences often differ based on class—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic—research with working-class gay dads holds promise to broaden understanding of gay-fathered families in the current socioeconomic context. Using the Psychology of Working theory (PWT) as a framework, the present study explored work and family experiences with working-class gay dads living on the West Coast of the United States.Methods: The primary research question guiding the study was: How do working- class gay dads’ family-work stories challenge the grand career narrative and provide new ways of thinking about parenting and decent work? I collected and analyzed data using a narrative inquiry methodology, which involved a three-stage interview process, co-construction of narratives with participants, and generation of study themes and structural recommendations.
Results: I organized participant stories into four narrative parts: History, Becoming Dads, Work-Family Interface, and Identity. With participant feedback, I highlighted seven study themes that emerged from the dads’ stories (e.g., Importance of Both Structural Economic Support and Structural LGBTQ+ Support, Many Valid Ways to Form Families). Situating these findings within the PWT model, I demonstrated how economic constraints and marginalization shaped these dads’ experiences of decent paid (and unpaid) work, and how their adaptability and volition buffered these impacts and offered pathways to meaningful roles as workers and fathers.
Conclusions: The stories of working-class gay dads expand thinking about parenting and work and extend the research on gay fathering. These stories and related themes provide helpful guidance for structural recommendations that attend not only to LGBTQ+ inclusion, but also policy improvement and economic justice. In so doing, the study sends a message of hopefulness to prospective queer parents while advocating to expand protections and support for all families.
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Keywords
decent work, gay dads, narrative inquiry, Psychology of Working, queer parenting, vocational psychology