ABSTRACT
In the course of the interviews on which this study is based, men were not asked any direct questions about their personal lives or the nature of their relationships. It was all the more striking, therefore, that in virtually every interview and through much of the observation which accompanied them, men made clear the very strong emotional bonds they had with their children and the importance of these relationships in their lives. The significance of these ties frequently emerged through body language: the way in which a man’s face would light up as he talked about his children or grandchildren or proudly showed off their photographs – ‘Who can say I haven’t achieved anything when I have grandchildren like these?’ – or the profound tenderness with which he might describe his experience of fatherhood. It was particularly noticeable, in a society in which it is often assumed that men are incapable of dealing with small children, how often men described their feelings, for example, about a birth, about taking a newborn home from hospital, about having a toddler in the house, in unmistakeably emotional terms:
Remarks such as these arose entirely spontaneously, and, as a result, appeared all the more significant for being prioritized in this way.
