2025/03/18 by Mandisa Malinga, Katya Kee-Tui, Tanian Walsh · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Health Professions · #HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses #Homelessness and Social Issues
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13229400.2025.2479021
openalex publication_date 2025/03/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Poverty and unemployment are cited as some of the factors impacting men’s fathering practices and involvement in their children’s lives. However, the ways in which these factors shape fatherhood across varying contexts are not well explored in existing scholarly work on fatherhood. As such, this study examined the relationship between fatherhood and precarious work, from the perspective of men who work as car guards in Cape Town (South Africa). The main aim of the study was to explore the specific ways in which working as a car guard impacts fathering. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 men who work as both formal and informal car guards. Following a thematic analysis, this study revealed that due to the nature of their work, some car guards struggle to maintain an active relationship with their children. Working long hours, earning low-wages, and physical distance from family (among migrant workers) were some of the reasons cited for not being involved in their children’s lives. While participants acknowledged the importance of being present, spending time with and playing with their children, some prioritized financial provision over other nurturing roles. We highlight this prioritizing as a form of generative fathering that responds to what participants perceive as the most urgent needs in their children’s lives, seeing to their children and future generations’ material needs. It is only when this most primary need is addressed, that some men are able to engage more actively in nurturing childcare activities. We draw on the conceptual framework of generative fathering (Dollahite & Hawkins, Citation1998) as a lens through which we analyse and discuss the data in this study.