Manufacturing Ghost Fathers Fathering and Exclusion in Child Welfare

1
Manufacturing Ghost FathersFathering and
Exclusion in Child Welfare
2
Who we are

• A research team of Canadian and UK scholars
• Leslie Brown,
• Susan Strega
• Marilyn Callahan,
• Lena Dominelli,
• Christopher Walmsley

• Funded by SSHRC
• Based at the University of Victoria

3
Where are the fathers?

• Previous research projects
• Young moms
• Failure to protect
• Grandmothers raising grandchildren

4
The research study

• Multiple Data Sources and Methods
• Policy review
• Literature review
• Study of case files (N 282)
• quantitative and qualitative data
• Survey of BSW syllabi (Canadian social work
  undergraduate courses)
• Qualitative interviews with fathers (11)
• Focus group interviews with practitioners (5)

5
How do you get to be a father?

• Through association with a woman who is a mother
• Through behaving in a parental manner
• Through a legal or administrative act
• A contested concept
• (Eichler McCall, 1993)

6
What this presentation will address

• Manufacturing Ghost Fathers
• Risks Opportunities for Engaging Fathers

7
The First Paradox of fathers in child welfare

• Contemporary popular and professional discourses
  promote the involved father
• Nonetheless child welfare policies and practices
  (Canada, UK, US) promote the uninvolved father

8
The Second Paradox

• Fathers exist in the lives of women and children
  in child welfare
• Fathers are rarely seen by child welfare, even
  when present

9
Ghost fathers

• I am not a ghost I did go back to school. I
  did have a girlfriendWe did become engagedWe
  had a child. I havent seen her for two months

10
Fathers in child welfare files

• 282 files randomly selected from 476 child
  welfare case files in a mid-size Canadian city
• 116 files with identified father and documented
  child protection concerns

11
Fathers in the files

• N 130 fathers identified in child protection
  files
• 50 of fathers considered a risk to mothers were
  not contacted by social workers

12
Contact by social workers
Kids
Moms
Moms
Kids
Less than 50 of fathers considered a risk were
contacted by social workers
13
The making of ghost fathers

• Policies and administrative practices
• Professional practices and discourses

• no tradition nor training to see

14
Father absence the child welfare policy context

• the concept of risk implemented as the
  fundamental organising principle in child
  welfare
• Gender neutral language
• a gendered division of rights and
  responsibilities in regard to child rearing that
  is most visible in child welfare (the protective
  parent concept)

15
Mother blaming and father absence

• Child welfare files routinely referenced in
  mothers name
• Gender inequity in child welfare extensive and
  well documented
• Workers focus on mothers and ignore fathers and
  father figures even when they are the source of
  the familys difficulties
• Fathers and father figures excluded from
• consideration as caregivers even when state
• guardianship is the alternative

16
Protection contracts (Julia Krane 2003)

• Mothers required to act protectively in ways
  defined by the state
• Agreements and orders focus on mothers
  inadequacies
• Require women to control, monitor and surveil the
  actions of men/fathers
• Men/fathers not constructed as either protectors
  or potential protectors, resources or potential
  resources or as responsible for ensuring
  childrens safety and well-being

17
Father invisibility other contributing policies
and practices

• Definitions of fatherhood
• Social assistance spouse in the house
• Preserving Aboriginal entitlements
• The new Managerialism and the emphasis on
  efficiency, standardization, surveillance and
  outcomes

18
Confirmation from workers

• Its different when caseloads are smaller because
  we can be more thorough, but when caseloads are
  big, which they usually are, we look for outs and
  thats an easy one. BC social worker

19

• Theyre trying to get through their cases.
  Theyre not making good judgment calls because
  its on to the next case. Theyre in a rush.
  And theyre devastating the lives of families in
  the processits not all men. There are some
  women out there that are devastated by child
  welfare as well but you know in my experience, I
  mean I really felt they ruined my life. (Henry,
  research participant.)

20
Professional practices

• Failing to hold fathers to account for absence or
  violence (not charged with neglect, frequently
  violence ignored)

We can monitor, encourage and offer services and
look at whats out there, not that theres loads,
but if they choose not tothen at that point you
have this kind of, we want you to do this
assessment, identify work that you should do as a
guy, but he doesnt have to within those
proceedings. He cant be compelled to do any
assessment for anything. UK social worker
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Professional practices

• Getting rid of him as the intervention option
• When I think of our more successful cases, the
  ones the social workers would be pleased with,
  they tend to be where the woman has been able to
  actually move and with support then change
  everything for herself and her children and that
  tends to mean separating from him. UK social
  worker
• Because how were trained is to get rid of the
  guy. I think if we can think about repairing the
  family dynamic rather than getting rid of
  somebody we might think differently, but we find
  whatever way we can get rid of him. BC social
  worker

22
Professional practices

• Professional education
• 33 BSW programs surveyed
• (response rate 66)
• 3 provincial training programs for workers
• 5 of syllabi had fathers content (in 3 programs)
• Consistent with fathers under-representation in
  popular parenting literature (4.2, Fleming
  Tobin, 2005)

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Biases reflected in these practices

• Gender
• Class
• Race and Culture

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Gender bias How fathers are not seen

• Mothers have to break the cycle
• The tradition cycle
• Bad mothers produce bad mothers
• The cycle of violence
• Children who witness/experience
• violence will grow up to be violent or victims
• The partner cycle
• Bad mothers pick bad men

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Father absence and mother blame

• Mothers held responsible for care and protection
  of children (e.g. neglect, child sexual abuse) as
  well as for nurturing the child-father
  relationship
• Adolescent pregnancy and parenting focus is on
  mothers
• Women continue to be blamed for the majority of
  problems in families whereas men remain largely
  invisible, especially in the field of child
  welfare (Risley-Curtiss Heffernan, 2003 395).

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Father absence and mother blame

• It's really difficult when all of your training
  and all of the procedures and everything tell you
  to go out and be child focused. If you can see
  damage happening to a child, you look around and
  you find the handy adult who sat there and is
  responsible. I mean the mother is responsible.
  You hold her responsible. UK social worker

27
Father absence and mother blame

• Its up to the mom to protect the children. So
  we talk to her only. We believe its the mom, the
  custodial parent, its up to her to be protective
  - or frequently hes a stepparent. So its up to
  her to protect her children.
• BC social worker

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Class bias Poor fathers dont count

• Some underlying discourses
• Good fathers are
• good providers
• Underclass discourse on dangerous men

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Race culture bias White western norms

• Some underlying discourses
• Familialism and the ideal family
• Fathers responsibility for care of children
  optional, for mothers its not
• Racialized discourse on dangerous men

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I didnt want to be an Aboriginal

• Jacks story of surviving colonizing
• child welfare practices
• every baby she had was theirs

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Being seen

• Act like a middle-class white mother

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Being seenas a risk

• Be confrontational, difficult and demanding with
  social workers
• Control social workers access to mother and
  children

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What is the impact of not seeing fathers?

• For Fathers.
• Not held accountable for their parenting role
• Not held accountable for their behaviour or its
  impacts
• Not seen nor do they see themselves as a
  contributing member of the family

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What is the impact of not seeing fathers?

• For Mothers.
• Fulfill all parenting roles
• Facilitate relationships with children and
  fathers
• Provide surveillance and civilizing fathers
• Monitor how social systems including child
  welfare view and/or do not see fathers

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What is the impact of not seeing fathers?

• For Children.
• Not evident in our data
• Surmise their uncertainty about fathers value
  and tendency to ostracize or romanticize fathers

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What is the impact of not seeing fathers?

• For policy makers social workers.
• Able to ignore possible father danger
• Able to ignore possible father resources
• No challenge made to present discourse, policies
  and practices

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Ghostbusting towards a father inclusive approach
to practice

• Its time for mother blame to be out of fashion.
• So you know, its like these people need to
  start opening up their eyes a little bit more and
  looking at our perspective, our point of view
  instead of always judging the woman.this old
  fashioned thinking doesnt get you nowhere but
  old fashioned thinking (Kyle, research
  participant).
• Avoid holding mothers responsible for monitoring
  and controlling mens behaviours.
• Seek out and engage with fathers, both as risks
  and as assets.

38
Engaging fathers Fathers speak

• Working with me, not working at me.

Theyre helping me theyre not against me. So
thats what helped me to become this.
I feel like Im being watched, but thats my
role, Im paranoid.
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Engaging fathers Fathers speak

• Providing concrete resources, support and
  information.

Ive had a lot of support to become a
different, a better parent.
She takes one baby maybe I take one baby to sort
of make it easier and stuff like that.
Sit on that couch until child welfare gets
here!
40
Engaging fathers Fathers speak

• Being in relationship, keeping fathers informed
  and involved.not out in the cold.

I have a relationship with them like the
workers. Like you know they knew me.
I was just another case in their batch of
files that they had.
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A fathers plea to workers

• instead of letting the
• willow bend you know,
• you dont have to snap
• the damn thing in half.
• You can let it bend and
• let it go back and itll
• swing on forever. You
• dont have to snap the
• damn thing to make it
• work.

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Workers speak (1)

• Difficult and challenging to work with fathers.
• Nobody goes anywhere near him. I certainly feel
  that about social services. We're always working
  with women. The men are out, in the pub, in the
  shed, over at their mothers- theyre somewhere
  else, arent they? So working really hard to
  engage what are fairly scary blokes, they're not
  necessarily scary to professionals, but some of
  them are, and say to them that their behaviour is
  unacceptable and some work needs to be done is
  much harder than it sounds, considering that we
  do that all the time to women. Social worker

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Workers speak (2)

• Lack of resources for fathers
• I dont want to open up that Pandora's box. BC
  social worker
• I think its recognised in things like
  Working together, recognising that it should
  happen, it doesnt actually say how and who
  should be doing it and so on. In terms of how
  social workers are able to do that on top of
  everything else that theyve got to do, and about
  whether weve got the skills to do that UK
  social worker
• I think often men in families continue to be
  on the periphery and we continue to keep them
  there for all sorts of reasons. UK social
  worker

44
Workers speak (3)

• Getting rid of father in one family means he will
  just fetch up in another
• Most of them walk away and go off to find new
  families. Theres lots of times I meet the mom
  and shell say he did the same thing to his last
  family. Shell even have a copy of the
  restraining order that he brought with him from
  the other relationship. BC social worker

45
Workers speak (4)

• Workers want policy change that supports working
  with fathers
• We can monitor, encourage and offer services and
  look at whats out there, not that theres loads,
  but if they choose not tothen at that point you
  have this kind of, we want you to do this
  assessment, identify work that you should do as a
  guy, but he doesnt have to within those
  proceedings. He cant be compelled to do any
  assessment for anything. UK social worker

46
Policy legislative reform

• Eliminate failure to protect as a category
• Develop policies that encourage engaging safe
  fathers or those who can become safer.
• Compulsory registration of birth fathers?
• Apply a gender lens to legislation and policy
• Actively pursue social policies that better
  resource disadvantaged single mothers

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Principles and practice strategies

• First Practice Strategy
• Acknowledge their presence

• First Principle
• Acknowledge their existence

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Principles and practice strategies

• Second Practice Strategy
• Be strengths-focused

• Second Principle
• Understand there are many different ways to be a
  father

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Principles and practice strategies

• Third Practice Strategy
• Respectful practice involves holding fathers
  accountable

• Third Principle
• Violence does not necessarily eliminate men from
  being involved as fathers, but it must be taken
  up directly with them

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Principles and practice strategies

• Fourth Practice Strategy
• Provide support to enable fathers to take
  responsibility

• Fourth Principle
• Fathers are responsible for their children

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Principles and practice strategies

• Fifth Principle
• Understand the context (practice
  anti-oppressively)

• Fifth Practice Strategy
• Be knowledgeable about structural contexts and
  how location affects father involvement

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A wish for care and respect

• They could have given me the respect.
• They did their jobs. You know they certainly
  didnt go an extra mile.
• Its caring instead of business-like caring
  where you have to care, she wants to care.