Fathering

The 21st-century father is expected to be actively engaged in the everyday care of his children, as epitomised by the celebrated dad of children’s cartoon Bluey, the Blue Heeler Bandit. Fathering: An Australian History explores why men often struggle to meet social and cultural expectations. The authors’ groundbreaking research reveals the forces that have shaped Australian family life and fathering since the early twentieth century, and how Australian fathers have managed the evolving role and its responsibilities.

Focusing on lived experience and drawing upon a century of personal accounts, Fathering shows how fathers have participated in raising their children as the world changed their family roles and the relationships they form with their children. It reveals how the experience of being a father is as much shaped by social class and material wellbeing as it is by race and ethnicity, geography and sexuality, and by family legacy and personal character.

The first comprehensive history of Australian fathering, Fathering transforms our understanding of men’s experience of parenthood, showing how fathers from diverse backgrounds, including migrant and Indigenous dads, have negotiated their role in changing circumstances.

About the Authors

Alistair Thomson is an emeritus professor at Monash University and author of oral history books on war, migration and family life. He has a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.

John Murphy is an emeritus professor of politics at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely on Australian social and political history. He has two daughters, and two grandchildren.

Kate Murphy is a senior lecturer at Monash University and mother of three young daughters. Her research focuses on Australian social and cultural history, especially the history of the family.

Johnny Bell is a historian of Australian family life, with a particular interest in the roles and identities of men. He is also the fortunate father of Lucius Bell.