Farmers framing fatherhood: everyday life and rural change

Abstract

This article explores how farming fathers frame fatherhood according to time-specific ideals. Based on interviews with fathers and their adult sons in Norway, findings show clear differences between the two generations concerning how fathers engage with their children and justify their practices. For the older generation, the major frames are “complementary gender roles,” “good farming practices” and “farm succession.” The current generation frames their fathering practices in “involved fathering,” “changing childhoods” and “intensive parenting.” Considering where the frames come from, it is notable that the older generation refers to local cultural accounts of agriculture when justifying their fathering practices, while the frames used by the current generation are not farm related but refer to broader social and cultural accounts of their time. The framing perspective used in this article contributes to understanding the ideological transformation of agricultural fatherhood in a period in which the patriarchal contours of agriculture may be changing.