In this chapter, we consider how research over the past decade and a half has contributed new insights into fatherhood. Our brief has been to consider: n parenting in ‘ordinary families’ n the factors associated with the diversity of paternal involvement n the extent to which there is consensus around key fi ndings and implications. As far as the last issue is concerned, we contend that, although there is no complete consensus, fathering is now widely viewed as a diverse set of activities where the infl uences on men are complex and dynamic. Two main methodological innovations have been in evidence in the contributing research. In their efforts to understand the course of family relationships more clearly, scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have capitalised on national datasets to explore the diverse manifestations of fathering. In the USA, longitudinal patterns have been explored using databases like the National Survey of Family and Households and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. These were designed in the 1980s to permit examination of father involvement in a variety of sub-groups by oversampling minority ethnic groups and those living in poverty. In one American analysis, Crockett et al. (1993) were able to examine the correlations over time between the presence of father fi gures and the development of pre-schoolchildren. In the UK, the National Child Development Study (NCDS) of children born in 1958, and the more recent Millennium Cohort, have been examined to good effect. For example, Ferri and Smith’s (1995) analysis of the relationship between the nature of parents’ occupations and their family life showed that working-class fathers in the NCDS were more likely than white-collar workers to care for their children while their partners worked. Although such analyses are valuable, we also need to be aware that such databases involve very general questions and thus can give us only a limited understanding of complex issues. The past decade has also witnessed a dramatic increase in the use of qualitative research methods. This has helped to address and illustrate the complexity of paternal roles by allowing scholars to explore issues as diverse as the transition to fatherhood (Henwood and Procter, 2003) and men’s adjustment to post-separation parenting (Lewis et al., 2002) by providing insights into the variations in individuals’

experiences and their changes over time. Some fathering studies have been inappropriately described as ‘qualitative’ when their content has amounted to little more than journalistic description. But, at its best in this fi eld, qualitative research involves a wide variety of perspectives and is highly disciplined, establishing a clear relationship between the theoretical analysis underpinning the study and the data themselves. Of all the issues concerning ‘ordinary families’ explored in the UK, the relationships between men’s and women’s employment, and their commitments to care and the home have been especially prominent. Research in this area has illustrated the added value of using a variety of research methods to explore the role of fathers and to illuminate the need for theory about the interactions among the infl uences depicted in Figures 1 and 2. Summarising research on the ways in which couples have divided domestic labour over the past two decades, Pleck and Masciadrelli (2004) described a ‘culture shift’ towards greater male domesticity. This reading of the international data is consistent with Fisher et al.’s (1999) analyses of two national databases showing faster growth in British fathers’ childcare commitments since the 1960s than among mothers. Of course, greater equity still does not mean that twenty-fi rst-century fathers commit as much time on average to childcare as mothers. As O’Brien’s (2005) recent analysis of data for the Offi ce for National Statistics (ONS, 2003) suggests, fathers in dual-earner households still do less with their children than mothers do (respectively, three and four-and-a-half hours per day). Further analysis of these databases suggests that the sharpest increase in parenting activities has occurred among fathers of pre-schoolers (O’Brien and Shemilt, 2003). O’Brien (2005) concludes that: British fathers are now expected to be accessible and nurturing as well as economically supportive to their children. (O’Brien, 2005, p. 1) Because dual-earner families now represent two-thirds of British families with dependent children, the ongoing changes in working and family roles have important psychological effects. Higher levels of father involvement in childcare are related to the hours and status of maternal employment (Sidle Fuligni and Brooks-Gunn, 2004). Yet increased involvement by men does not appear to be correlated with increased harmony between the involved partners. In a report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Lewis (2000) reported that, at least in dual-earner families, increased paternal involvement in childcare was related to lower marital satisfaction (for example, see Crouter et al., 1987). This fi nding has been replicated but we now know that the picture is more complex and requires analysis of the family system. Fathers with less sensitive partners appear to be less sensitive towards their children