‘I feel like sometimes I’m being watched’

According to Brendan Churchill, a senior lecturer in sociology at Australia’s University of Melbourne who conducts research on fatherhood, the ideal father is expected to be more involved in his children’s day-to-day lives in countries like the United States and Australia than in the past.

“The male breadwinner model lingers, however.Our culture reinforces it on a daily basis.Think about the advertisements that promote the four-person family on television or in the newspaper,” he says.Even though there has been a lot of change, it still exists in our social policy frameworks: “Our reference point is still that family of four with a male breadwinner.

“For instance, most nations continue to provide significantly more generous paternity leave than maternity leave.