Fatherhood as a social fiction: The image of father in the mothers' life stories

The purpose of this study is to find out how fatherhood is socially constructed and to what extent the life history of mothers are effective in this process. In accordance with this purpose, qualitative research was conducted, and life history method, one of the qualitative research methods, was employed. The study was carried out with 15 mothers living in a town in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. The data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews, and the collected data were analyzed through discourse analysis. The mothers described fathers as people who are trustworthy, protective, and fun. In the childhood narrations of the mothers, fatherhood was associated with the public sphere. In the childhood-narrations, the image of father was a supreme figure who hardly ever makes a mistake. If he makes a mistake, he is excused. The mothers separated the gender-based roles at home with sharp lines in their life histories, and they expressed the home as the area of their sovereignty. The mothers established their subjectivity within the boundaries of the home. They defined themselves as the ones who keep the home in order and are indispensable to the home. The mothers expect their husbands as fathers to take care of their children and to help them with the housework. The change of fatherhood through time was explained by the mothers through a comparison of their fathers with their husbands. In the narrations of the mothers, their husbands who, in comparison to their fathers, "spend more time with their children" and "occasionally help" their wives with the housework represent the "new father". This "new father" model, which emerged as a result of the transition from the extended family structures to the nuclear family, is designated as "the good father" by the mothers. The results of the study indicated that the mothers associated fatherhood with the public sphere and described it as the primary bread winner and controlling the life outside the boundaries of home. Fatherhood as defined by the mothers participating in the study reflects the middle-class family ideal. The mothers restricted their zone of subjectivity to home and housework. While defining their husbands as the ideal "new father" who spend more time with their children and occasionally help their wives with the housework, they see home and housework within the responsibility area of women and contribute to the reproduction of the gendered family structure. The mothers do not negatively perceive this gendered role division, and they accept the home as the primary area of, and for, building their subjectivity. Key Words: Fatherhood, Motherhood, Gender, Subjectivity, Life history