ABSTRACT
Fathers and fatherhood have become an important topic of public interest and debate in recent years, with autobiographical accounts by fathers and explorations of the state of contemporary fatherhood a staple of the news media and popular culture (Lupton and Barclay 1997). This concern has been reflected at the level of public policy, particularly since the election of the first New Labour government in 1997. Encouraging fathers’ active involvement in family life has been a consistent strand in a range of Labour initiatives (Home Office 1998; Toynbee and Walker 2001), which in turn has led to a greater emphasis on involving fathers in health and social care services, for example, in the work of family centres and in child protection (Ghate 2000; Ryan 2000).
