Stay-at-Home Fathers

Abstract

We use CPS data from 1976 to 2009 to compare the characteristics and proportions of stay-at-home father (SAHF) households with both stay-athome mother (SAHM) and dual-earner households. We find that mothers in SAHF households have a significantly higher level of education than their husbands and experience the sharpest increase in education over time compared with spouses in other household types. Caregiving SAHF households are, over time, closing the income gap with their SAHM counterparts. We make a distinction between caregiving and unable-towork SAHFs and demonstrate that these two types of SAHF households are substantially different from one another. Caregiving SAHF households share key traits with SAHM households. Our results show that families living in stay-at-home households are increasingly the result of a deliberate choice made by spouses to have fathers assume a caregiving role while mothers pursue employment outside the home.

Social Class and Educational Attainment: Do Blacks Benefit Less from Increases in Parents’ Social Class Status?

“…Although either parent could be the dominant parent, the typical presumption is that fathers hold the high-status position in households; therefore, only fathers’ characteristics suffice in predicting children’s attainment (Erikson 1984; Korupp et al 2002). However, increases in mothers’ labor force participation and position as primary breadwinners has shifted attention toward how mothers matter for children’s life chances (Beller 2009; Goldthorpe 1980; Kramer, Kelly, and McCulloch 2013; Medved 2016; Rosenfeld 1978; Wright 1979). Moreover, a growing number of studies examine how mothers’ social class characteristics matter for predicting children’s educational attainment (Keith and Finlay 1988; Korupp et al 2002; Monaghan 2017; Teachman 1987).…”

What Does It Mean to Be a “Breadwinner” Mother?

“…There also appear to be key factors that condition decisions to adopt gender-traditional work/family or gender-atypical work/family arrangements. Both quantitative (Drago, Black, & Wooden, 2005; Kramer, Kelly, & McCulloch, 2013) and qualitative studies (Chesley, 2011; Dunn, Rochlen, & O’Brien, 2011) point to the role economic circumstances play in the decision to adopt gender-atypical arrangements. Some of this research suggests that two separate pathways into female breadwinning/at-home fatherhood are likely at work.…”

“…Some of this research suggests that two separate pathways into female breadwinning/at-home fatherhood are likely at work. A smaller group of families is actively choosing to have mothers work while fathers care for children full-time, while a much bigger group falls into this arrangement because of fathers’ job instability (Chesley, 2011; Drago et al, 2005; Kramer et al, 2013). Kramer et.…”

“…A smaller group of families is actively choosing to have mothers work while fathers care for children full-time, while a much bigger group falls into this arrangement because of fathers’ job instability (Chesley, 2011; Drago et al, 2005; Kramer et al, 2013). Kramer et. al (2013) draw on several decades of survey data from the U.S. Current Population Study to examine trends in at-home and dual-earner parenting.…”

“…These shifts are reflected in studies that investigate changes in work/family arrangements among married couples with children over time. Kramer, Kelly, and McCulloch (2013) draw on 1976-2009 Current Population Survey data and find that while the gender-traditional breadwinner/carer model was dominant in the 1970s (52% of U.S. married couple families had male breadwinner/female carer family structures during this period), by 2009, 63% of U.S. married couple families had both fathers and mothers in the labor force full-time. However, even as married mothers have increased their labor market activity, most married fathers still earn more than mothers in these families (Wang et al, 2013).…”