Changes in Law and Culture Expand Fathers' Roles in Brazil

08/13/2018 - 11h01

It's still far from a typical occurrence, but the number of Brazilian households with a father as the single parent is growing. At 3.6% of the total number of families in the country, it is still a small fraction, but one that grew 16% from 2005 to 2015, the last year with available data.

According to IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, the department responsible for census and population surveys), the growth is more pronounced in the state of São Paulo, where the increase was 27%, with a total percentage of 3.3% of families.

This is a visible change, according to researchers, psychologists and family court magistrates. It is rooted in the middle classes and it was triggered by women's voluntary entry in the job market. On the one hand, this affected males' traditional role as the provider; on the other, it increased the pressure for fathers to take on more active roles in raising children.

Little by little, this change is reaching other class levels that are still very patriarchal: going down to working and low-income families, and up to the upper classes.

But rather than having a woman or a man at home, what children need is people to perform both motherly and fatherly roles, says Belinda Piltcher Haber Mandelbaum, professor of psychology at Universidade de São Paulo.

Still, it's still women who lead childrearing duties, as a July survey from Instituto Locomotiva shows: 89% of men say it's as important for fathers as it is to mothers to be a part of their children's love, but only 16% actually do it.

American researches show that single fathers' children do just as well as children raised by both parents or single mothers, both in grades and in behavior.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

Read the article in the original language