ABSTRACT
Paul Amato observes that the special contributions of fathers can be organized into several general domains. Amato uses the quality of the co-parenting relationship as an indicator of social capital. Building social capital in stepfamilies is simply a less efficient and reliable process. Similarly, non-residential parents face structural barriers to sustaining social capital. Their ability to re-enforce and be re-enforced is usually weakened by divorce and by separate residence. Amato has shown that fathers are only slightly less likely to be invested in childrearing as reported by their offspring in retrospective measures of paternal support. Men assumed a larger familial role in the patriarchal system, their influence waning with the advent of a job economy. The gender gap in the 1996 election attests to the real distance between men and women on many issues involving governmental assistance to families.
