ABSTRACT
In the traditional family of the 1950s, in both white middle-and workingclass England, fathering was a position rather than a relationship. To be a father was to occupy a position of authority and to be entitled to respect as a father. "Wait till your Dad comes home" could be heard as a threat and a warning, which could be invoked by mothers who were still largely confined to the domestic sphere and to childcare. The father could be appealed to as a figure of authority whose responsibilities as breadwinner and provider took him into the public realm of work where masculine identities were to be affirmed. So traditionally fathers were placed at the boundaries of family life, as figures of authority.
