How Equal are Fathers?

Read Miranda Harvey's report from this conference.

This event was a rather pricey conference organised by Children in Scotland and was held at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh on Friday 17th June.
The Chair was Cathy Peattie, MSP and Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee - I sat next to her at lunch!

First speaker of the day was Ewan Aitken, acting in his capacity as education spokesperson for COSLA whilst also making reference to the fact that he works for the Children and Families Department at Edinburgh Council and is also a father - we were shown appropriate cute photos of the Aitken juniors.
Rev. Aitken talked about differences in the male and female learning styles - how females learn by doing and males learn through reasoning; how society then labels as "feminine" the social role of developing relationships and; how "fathering" gives men an opportunity to explore this side of themselves. He then talked about the imagery of Christianity, (ie God the Father) and how this led to conflicting views of what society should be depending on what you thought fathers should be, ie strict, moral authoritarian and punishing, teaching obedience and leading to prosperity, or nurturing and caring, developing trust and mutual respect leading to a sense of community. He touched on the lack of men in teaching generally, hoped that the Chartered Teacher programme would keep more in the classroom. Aitken also emphasised the importance of paternity leave; the relationship between absent fathers and delinquency in later life and; the need to make work more family friendly.

The next speaker was Jenny Watson from the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) who presented statistics regarding the role of fathers. She said that whilst most people would disagree that a father's most important role is as the breadwinner, Scottish people are the most likely in the UK to see the mother as the "natural" carer for children. She spoke quite a bit about parental leave and how most fathers took annual leave because they couldn't afford to leave at the statutory rate even when it is available - this discriminates against the lower paid workers. The EOC are campaigning for an equal and bigger allocation of shared maternity/paternity leave, an end to the "long-hours culture" and more flexible work patterns to suit family life. She also spoke about the gender equality duty which is being introduced under current legislation and will oblige public services to be non-discriminatory in the delivery of their services - this might mean differently delivered or fathers-only services.

We then heard from Duncan Fisher of Fathers Direct, (not Fathers4Justice) who spoke from an English perspective. He talked about the body of research that shows that fatherhood impacts on children and how they grow up - for example, if a child has a good relationship with their father they are more likely to well at school and less likely to get into a cycle of crime or be involved in anti-social behaviour; the changing role of women and; the argument for gender equality. Fisher mentioned examples of success such as the national service framework for social services and the gender equality law and how this should be a lever for future change. He talked about the barriers to better practice: the "invisibility" of fathers who are the principal carers for their children; the structural predujices that exclude fathers; the downside of the competition between fathers and mothers rights.
In practical terms Duncan Fisher talked about the importance of educating boys and young men to be fathers; to get them involved in schools; changing work practices and; making information that women tend to pick up "on the grapevine" available to fathers.
He finished with an interesting observation that many social services only engage with fathers who are criminals, but that even when a father is absent it is important to promote the relationship between the child and father - from the child's point of view (and there was a film to back this up), even a non-resident father is an important part of how a child defines itself.

After lunch I went to two workshops. One was on a project in Edinburgh which encouraged fathers to bring their children for free family photos as a way to get them to talk about what it means to be a dad. It was very moving, although we didn't have much time to discuss it or ask questions.
The second workshop was a presentation from a fathers' group which had been set up in an area of deprivation in Wales. Their work ran contrary to what others had said at the conference as this group seemed stable and self-reliant. The work was based mainly on taking the child out of school, (this was a suggestion from the Headteacher who acted as a mentor for the group). One of the things that the fathers really enjoyed was the chance to look after others people's children - I imagine that Disclosure Scotland would have been in like a flash if that happened up here!

A group session then addressed how public services could work in a better way with fathers. Disclosure Scotland and the increasing pressure of getting people police checked was seen by many in my group as a huge disincentive. One father also brought up the issue of non-resident fathers not being included in school information, or any services for his children. I mentioned the case of SPTC where the majority of active members are probably female, but the membership of the Board of Directors is more evenly split. There is also the risk that in getting rid of school boards, the Scottish Executive may lose the voice of the men that are involved in their child's school.

At the plenary session, we heard from Yvonne Strachan, Head of the Equality Unit at the Scottish Executive and Karen Richardson from York who set up JIGSAW, the centre for separated families. Issues raised with this panel included: Disclosure Scotland, ring-fenced funding, the Family Law Bill and early intervention programmes in family separation.

Report by Miranda Harvey.
June 2005.