Breaking Gender Roles: Stay At Home Dads

There’s a new trend and it’s being one of the many rising stay at home dads. Instead of mommy taking care of the children, making meals and changing diapers, daddy’s deciding to assume all of her responsibilities and lastly, hand his title of “breadwinner” over to his wife. The amount of dads taking on this new position has doubled since 1989, according to a new Pew Research Center Report. In 2012, two-million dads are stay at home dads, which is now representing 16% of those stay-at-home parents, which has increased by 10% since 1989.

In today’s society, it’s no news flash when we witness father’s taking on the responsibility for their children as stay at home dads. Driving this growth in the amount of men staying home purely means that they want to be home, caring for their children. It takes a special man to “want” to stay at home with his children day in and day out, simply because men aren’t bread that way. Men want to be the “sole earner” in their family because they love the feeling of taking care of their family. For most men, staying at home would simply be a deflation to their ego, yes the one they’ve worked so hard to maintain.

While there are some dads that are choosing to assume their wife’s responsibility, others might not have a choice. In fact, research suggests the majority of men that have fallen in this category can’t find a job or could be dealing with a health issue that limits them to work. Dad’s who stay home, are more than likely lacking a high school diploma, which is the same scenario for mothers who stay home.

The world is changing, especially the roles between mommy and daddy. In 1968, four out of ten households had both parents working to one household. Today, six out of ten parents work in one household. There’s an 11% increase of father’s who are monitoring homework, changing diapers, giving baths and reading to their children compared to ten years ago.

Society is socially accepting this role change between mommy and daddy, resulting in a shift in the workplace. Now, not only do women make up half of the workforce but they’re considered equal, if not the mail source of income in four out of ten families today.