Child Development, January/February 2000, Volume 71, Number 1, Pages 127Ð136 Fatherhood in the Twenty-First Century Natasha J. Cabrera, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda, Robert H. Bradley, Sandra Hofferth, and Michael E. Lamb The twentieth century has been characterized by four important social trends that have fundamentallychanged the social cultural context in which children develop: womenÕs increased labor force participation, in-creased absence of nonresidential fathers in the lives of their children, increased involvement of fathers in intactfamilies, and increased cultural diversity in the U.S.. In this essay, we discuss how these trends are changingthe nature of father involvement and family life, and in turn affecting childrenÕs and fathersÕ developmentaltrajectories. We end with an eye toward the twenty-Þrst century by examining how the children of today willconstruct their expectations about the roles of fathers and mothers as they become the parents of tomorrow.This life-span approach to fatherhood considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood devel-ops, and emphasizes the urgent need to consider mothers, fathers, and family structure in future research aswe seek to understand and model the effects of parenting on childrenÕs development. INTRODUCTION Social and historical contexts shape both popular andscholarly conceptions of children, families, and parent-ing, so it is important to view our contemporary un-derstanding of family relationships in light of recenthistory. In the second half of the nineteenth century,fathers in the U.S. left their small farms and busi-nesses to seek employment away from home in anemerging industrial economy. In so doing, they leftthe responsibility for rearing children largely tomothers, and, not surprisingly, the predominant con-struction of fatherhood in the twentieth century hadat its core fathersÕ instrumental or breadwinning rolein the family (LaRossa, 1997). The constant presence ofmothers as childrenÕs primary caregivers fostered theimplicit assumption that fatherÐchild relationshipshad little impact on childrenÕs development, andthis popular belief was reinforced by developmentaltheorists throughout most of the century.As we approach the end of the twentieth century,social changes are forcing adjustments in both popu-lar and scholarly conceptualizations of fathers, mothers,and families. We have seen an evolution of father ide-als from the colonial father, to the distant breadwin-ner, to the modern involved dad, to the father as co-parent (Pleck & Pleck, 1997). These ideals have beenaccompanied by four trends: womenÕs increased laborforce participation, the absence of many men fromtheir families, the increased involvement of other fa-thers in childrenÕs lives, and increased cultural diver-sity in the United States. These trends demand thatwe reconceptualize American fatherhood and addresssuch questions as: How will changes in the roles andexpectations of mothers and fathers affect childrenÕsdevelopment in the new millennium? How will theboys and girls of today become the fathers andmothers of tomorrow? What type of intergenerationallegacy will todayÕs fathers and sons leave for those ofthe twenty-Þrst century?Our Þrst goal in this essay is to address these ques-tions in the context of our abbreviated analysis of thefour important secular trends described here. Sec-ond, we discuss paternal inßuences on child devel-opment and anticipate the effects of societal changeon these patterns of inßuence. Third, we articulate acontextualized life-span analysis, explaining howchanges in the childhood experiences of boys andgirls promise to alter their constructions of father-hood and motherhood when they themselves be-come parents. THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY Nothing has changed family life more in the twen-tieth century than the dramatic increase in mothersÕlabor force participation. Mothers have always been inthe work force of course, but between 1830 and 1940,women were primarily involved in family businessesor worked in factories until they married. In 1950,12% of married women with preschool children werein the work force and by 1997 that proportion hadrisen to two-thirds (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureauof Labor Statistics, 1986, 1997). As the rate of maternallabor force participation increased, so did enrollmentof children in child facilities (Spain & Bianchi, 1996).By 1995 there were almost 10 million children under 6years old who were in nonparental care because theirwere mothers were employed (Hofferth, 1996). The © 2000 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2000/7101-0015128 Child Development U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics(1997) projects that the largest job growth through2006 will be in low-wage jobs which involve nightand weekend shifts, jobs more often held by women.Younger workers with less seniority are likely towork these shifts and they are more likely than olderworkers to be rearing children. At the same time, theproportion of two-parent families in which fathersserve as the sole breadwinner has declined (Her-nandez, 1993). Only about one-quarter of childrenlive in such families today (Hofferth, 1998).A second societal change that has dramaticallyaltered the childrearing landscape is the heightenedabsence of fathers. In 1960, only 6% of families inthe United States were headed by females whereas24% are so characterized today (U.S. Bureau of theCensus, 1998). The proportion of children who livewith only one parent at some time during their child-hood years is expected to continue exceeding 50%(Hernandez, 1993).This increase in father absence is particularly trou-bling because it is consistently associated with poorschool achievement, diminished involvement in thelabor force, early childbearing, and heightened levelsof risk-taking behavior (Federal Interagency Forumon Child and Family Statistics, 1998). Boys growingup without fathers seem especially prone to exhibitproblems in the areas of sex-role and gender-identitydevelopment, school performance, psychosocial ad-justment, and self-control (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1986). Girls are affected by father absence too,although the effects on girls may be less enduring,dramatic, and consistent.Most previous research on father absence has ob-scured individual differences in the patterning ofeffects in father-present versus father-absent groups.In the past two decades,