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Dear Charlotte Area Single Parent:

I am a professor at Davidson College studying men’s experiences with work and family. I am looking for single fathers willing to talk about their experiences as working fathers. My current study focuses on fathers’ strategies for balancing work and family and how this influences their relationships at home and at work. Interviews are vital because I need fathers to describe their experiences in their own words.

BACKGROUND

Although a growing research literature on work and family suggests that it is not only women but also men who experience work-family conflict, less is known about the strategies working fathers use in an attempt to balance their work and family lives. With dramatic changes in work and family life over the last few decades, including increases in women’s labor force participation, especially mother’s labor force participation, and increases in divorce and non-marital childbearing, families consisting of a breadwinner husband/father and homemaker wife/mother are fairly uncommon. Instead, dual-earner families and single-parent families are the more standard family forms of today. A major bias in the current work/family literature is the focus on married couples. Few studies of single fathers exist, yet single custodial fathers are in a unique position as their employers may not fully understand the needs that their role as primary caregiver creates at home.

BENEFITS

Participating in this research will provide a better understanding of the situation that single fathers face when attempting to combine work and family. I hope that this research will eventually influence policy related to single parents and the workplace. Key results will be available through conference talks, written articles, and a book. In addition, due to generous funding from the American Sociological Association, I am able to provide $50 compensation for each interview.

WHAT I WOULD DO

I would personally interview fathers about experiences with work and family. All interviews are strictly confidential. For all interviews, I provide a written consent form indicating the purpose of the study and asking permission to record the interview for later analysis. I will provide $50 in cash at the end of each interview.

RESEARCH AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

I grew up in New York, graduated from Cornell University, and received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University. I was recently promoted to Associate Professor of Sociology at Davidson College. I have published several articles related to gender, work, and family issues, one of which won recognition from the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. Some of the courses I teach at Davidson include gender and society, men and masculinity, American families, and gender, work, and family.

Personally, I grew up with a single mother who struggled to provide for her children while remaining active in our lives. In addition, I have experienced first hand a multigenerational household, divorce, cohabitation, stepfamily, multiracial family, and adoption. Therefore, I have had many occasions to reflect on the complexities of family life in the United States.

LET’S TALK

I would like to plan a time to meet with you and others during October and November. Please email me at gakaufman@davidson.edu with the following information:

*Name
*Phone number
*E-mail address
*Best days/times to be interviewed


I will call you to set up a time, or feel free to call me at 704-894-2485.

I look forward to learning about your experiences as a working father,
Gayle Kaufman