As parenting trends shift in society, its not only the rise of fathers playing a greater role in the upbringing of their children that is taking place.
According to Statistics Canada, lone, male parent families have risen steadily over the decade from 2001 to 2011, the year of the most recent census.
In 2001, there were 245,825 lone, male parent families counted. That jumped to 281,775 in 2006. And in 2011 there was a total of 327,545, a rise of 16.2 per cent over a five-year span.
In comparison, female-only parent families rose six per cent in the same period, but still led in the overall number of single parent families in the country with 1,200,295 in 2011.
So, why are dad-only families on the rise?
Barbara Mitchell, a professor of sociology and gerontology at SFU, said its a blend of changes in society.
The recent rise in the rates of single fatherhood is unprecedented from a historical perspective, she said. It reflects significant changes in gender roles and societal attitudes, the economy, and in the ways that courts treat custody cases.
Mitchell explained that the legal system used to be quite biased in favour of awarding custody to mothers.
Overall, we have seen a shift in parenting practices that have traditionally embraced the deeply entrenched attitude that mothers care is superior and is always the best and that dads are not able to nurture children to the same capacity, she said. This view was particularly prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s when women were encouraged to conform to strict gendered role divisions that emphasized full-time motherhood and domestic responsibilities over career goals.
That started to change in the 1970s when women entered the labour force in record numbers and more sought higher education.
Women are also quickly becoming the primary breadwinner in many families, especially with recent changes in the economy, Mitchell said. This means that some mothers are less willing to want full-time custody and dads have picked up more of the domestic slack, including raising children.
And slowly, societal changes have also decreased the stigma of fathers as caregiver, which, in turn, can fuel its popularity because it is seen as less deviant.
Single dads are also more likely to live with a partner than single moms, and this kind of family environment may be viewed as more positive when custody decisions are made, Mitchell said.
But despite new attitudes, some fathers can face challenges.
For example, some stay-at-home single dads have been criticized for not working full-time in the paid labour force and for not adopting traditional masculine roles, Mitchell said. Others may assume that these dads are unable to fully meet the needs of their children simply because they are male and therefore they may provide less support to them.
