Fathering by singles : Qualitative views on single fathers’ parental roles regarding discrepancies between norms and practices

The aim of this qualitative study is to look into the experiences of four single fathers in the Stockholm area, regarding how they perceive their situations as fathers before and after their disruptions of their previous unions, societal norms around them; if there are discrepancies between normative pressures and the possible day to day practices available for them to live. A masculinities perspective is applied for analyzing interviews made with the fathers, drawing on previous findings, mainly the omnipresent hegemonic masculinity but under which is also found the transnational masculinity and the child oriented masculinity. These masculinities are used as a back-drop against which the empiric material is viewed and analyzed in the search of the fathers’ views on their life worlds’ discrepancies between normative pressures and societal discourse, in comparison with the boundaries set up by their day to day practices, which limit their possible choices of action. The results show that there are discrepancies between different external pressures connected to norms for the fathers and that this at the individual level can at times cause internalized conflicts. A select few topics for future research in the field of single fathers’ fatherhoods are suggested, which conclude the study