are fathers accepted around here? implicit and explicit messages about parenting in slovak media and...

Are fathers accepted around here? Implicit and explicit messages about parenting in Slovak media and legislation

Magda PETRJANOSOVA, Miroslav POPPER , Ivan LUKSIK , Gabriel BIANCHIInstitute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

Introductionresearch project Sustainable reproduction in

Slovakia: a psycho-social inquiry

cultural and normative framework (post-socialism, capitalism, Catholicism, ...)

structural and legislative framework (laws and real life practices concerning crèche, kindergarten, schools, abortion, IVF, adoption, state benefits, ...)

press analysis (mainstream and Catholic newspapers)

interviews and focus groups with parents, future parents, childfree persons

Sustainable reproduction in Slovakia

low reproduction rate (total fertility < 1.3) postponement of childbearing (most women are

25-29 years old when having the first child)strong tradition of women working and caring for

small children at home until they are 3 years oldpanic discourses about ageing of the population

- mainly about old-age pension system not functioning - not so much about immigrants overtaking Slovakia (but partly about the Roma minority overtaking)

It is important to identify and analyse the most significant factors of this development

This presentation´s topic How do media (1) and legislation

texts (2) about reproduction and parenting interact with participants´ accounts (3) around these topics?

. (1) (1) Press analysis

all relevant articles in the last 10 years (2002-2011) in the most important mainstream broadsheet daily SME (N=1500)

all relevant articles in the most important Catholic broadsheet (N=132) for the last year (10/2010-9/2011)

the articles from the last year from both newspapers (N=305)

(2) Legislative framework analysisall relevant laws currently in force

(N=31), selected laws also from the viewpoint of changes over time

(3) (3) Focus groups15 semi-structured FG discussions with

young men (N=48) and women (N=39), aged 20-34

7 groups all male, 4 all female and 4 mixed

various socio-economic backgrounds and varying levels of education

focusing on the participants’ lifestyles, partner-and-parental-role constructions, work-and-family/parenting relations and normative opinions on parenthood

Press analysisbecause of their power to form the public

discourse, the media can influence how people “see” the world, what issues they think about, what is controversial for them and what is rather normal or even incontestable (Richardson, 2007)

of course, the media discourse does not represent the public opinion, it is rather a discursive arena where the public debate is developed and personal opinions and attitudes are formed (Triandafyllidou, 2002)

Press analysis (CDA)

How reproduction and parenting are thematized in Slovak print media, what are the main messages?

What is described as normal? Are there contradictions?

What actors are present? What are their roles?

What is omitted, not thematized at all (and why)?

Keyword News Suplements, thematic subwebs

Discussions and blogs

Togethers Which supplements and subwebs

Reproduction 7 25 51 83 Medicine, Women

Sex. education 102 50 433 585 Medicine, Women

Sexuality 35 114 442 591 Medicine, Science, Women

Adoption 26 110 456 592 Medicine, Women

Abortion 77 99 450 626 Medicine, Women

Thematic and CDA analysisMicrolevel

ChildrenPregnancyPlanned parenthood

No fatherhood as a

Macrolevel

„We are dying out“

Roma people

main theme

Assisted reproductionAbortion

Children – messages and omissions"the most important thing in life is to have a

child" "there are a lot of single mothers""children need a FATHER, too""children should be born in marriage"

adoptionschild-free persons are not thematized at allteenage pregnancies are not thematized

AR – messages and omissions"it is not easy to get pregnant" "women delay motherhood and that is

bad""thanks medicine there is no problem to

conceive and give birth after 35 "

"infertility of MEN is very frequent"

"AR can help" "the health insurance companies do not

want to pay for the AR" "AR is not allowed by the Catholic church

neither the Orthodox"

Men/fathers in the press

only in a few contexts – male infertility– children have a right to a mother and a

father (when argumenting against a law allowing same-sex couples to adopt, or against single mothers)

otherwise the important actors mentioned concerning reproduction and parenting are always women

FG summary - fatherhood modelsStereotypical – men breadwinners, women

caring for children and staying at home with them when small

„Modern“ – prevailing – men doing a lot, but in the framework of „helping“ the women

Radical – completely liberal about roles of women and men in couple, household and parenting (e.g. men can stay at home with small children) – some of them have problems with expressing these views

Stereotypical

Well when I actually get... When I’ve finished studying and I’ve got a job and can provide financial security for us then for the children. (Nitra 2 M; M)

New models – missing vocabulary• (...) now it’s no problem for fathers to

bring up their little kids, they can give them a bath themselves, change their nappies and take them for walks and have fun with them, basically these days some fathers go on MATERNITY leave instead of the mothers, which was definitely not so obvious before. (Trnava Mix; M)

• Is this the only one model possible? • Sometimes its the other way round. The

man sometimes becomes the MOTHER, the roles are exchanged. (Nitra Mix, M)

Conclusions 1How do media texts on reproduction and

parenting interact with participants´ accounts?

media texts concentrate on women and motherhood

men are almost invisible except for the male infertility topic and the general claim that children need a whole family

also in the afore mentioned we-are-dying-out scenarios about the postponement of childbearing, the cited statistics never are about the age of first-time fathers or about number of childless men (see also Hašková, Zamykalová, 2006)

Conclusions IIconcerning the fatherhood models„planned parenthood is good“ – but current

social norms in Slovakia prioritise starting a family only when 1) the education is finished, 2) people have stable jobs and 3) their own place to stay (Potančoková, 2009) – if men see their role as the breadwinners they have to postpone parenting

a very strong discourse on the irreplaceable mother and her “helper” - the father

Conclusions IIIin Slovakia there is a strong tradition of

staying at home with small children until they are 3 years old

strong motherhood discourse in the media

in the real life there are already a few exemptions

but if our participants wanted to speak about their egalitarian understanding, sometimes they did not have the right words because of the prevailing discourse

Thank you for your attention as well as for your questions

and comments!

magda.petrjanosova@savba.sk