This strand of our research the impact of changing parenting culture, and specifically becoming a parent, on other relationships. How does the transition to a more expertise-based idea of ‘doing relationships’ affect the ways in which individuals relate to each other? How has that changed over time? The project Leverhulme Trust funded project Parenting: Gender, intimacy and equality was particularly concerned with how the ‘new parenting culture’ affects adults’ experiences of raising their children, and the implications for their sense of self, or ‘identity work’. This work culminated in the book Couples’ Transitions to Parenthood: Gender, Intimacy and Equality. The changes have also been explored in work on the adult-child relationship, as well as the transition to parenthood in an age of more ‘anxious reproduction’, particularly in terms of new reproductive technologies.
More recently, Charlotte Faircloth has been leading the project 50 Years of Becoming a Mother. which takes and inter-generational, longitudinal, and historically comparative approach to research the continuities and changes in women’s experiences over the last 50 years in the UK. Working with Ann Oakley, this is based on re-analysis of Oakley’s previous research (of the same name) as well as new data-collection. This strand of out research ties into our interest in documenting Changing Parenting Culture, providing empirical evidence to understand better these historical trends.
Read on:
‘When equal couples become unequal partners: Couple relationships and intensive parenting culture
Making Parents: Reproductive Technologies and Parenting Culture across Borders.
Childhood, parenting culture, and adult-child relations in global perspectives