As a child growing up in the late 1960’s, I had been a witness to radical changes in families living around and in my neighborhood. I saw my friends’ losing their fathers and becoming single-parent families. When I was growing up this was not an accepted practice, and the children often felt disgraced. They were not called “absent fathers” at the time; moreover, society called them “nonexistent parents.” Defining the term “absent father” is difficult as there are so many variables. How could fathers be nonexistent? Where were they going? Many went elsewhere to look for work in other cities or lost their jobs and moved away. Sometimes fathers just walk away with no regard for the welfare of their children. Whatever the circumstances, fathers were leaving at alarming rates are continuing to do so.
Currently, researchers at UNICEF identified that in the United States, 21.2% of children are living in single parent households (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations 1996). They go on to say white children born after 1980; approximately, 50% will live part of that time in single parent homes. For black children the numbers are a staggering 80% residing in single-parent homes. They equate the difference to the number of black children born out of wedlock (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations 1996). For Caucasian children living in the United States, that represents one-half of the population is or will end up in single-parent homes at some time. Black children represent over three quarters of the population and there is no sign that the progression is slowing. Those statistics only define two ethnic groups and clearly don't represent all the children in the United States. The increase in absentee fathers and single-family homes is distressing, and despite the multitude of social programs, the situation continues to deteriorate. Currently, there are minimal programs or social interventions on the horizon.
Job loss or the downsizing in the economy is another element contributing to the increase of absent fathers. For instance, the Child Trends organization states fathers who no longer have a job or are underemployed, often limit their ties with family (Halle, et al). This in itself creates absent fathers and often permanency in the separation of households. This also has a major impact on poverty in the United States.
Downsizing would eventually become a well known name and during the early 1970's; the Boeing Company laid-off thousands of workers in Seattle, WA. Thousands of families living in the Seattle area had ties to their communities for years, and had begun to separate to find employment. As a kid living in Seattle, I watched many of my friends suffer from their fathers seeking work in other cities and states. My friends often lost their primary residence and had to move to lower-income neighborhoods. Some of my friends went from private to public school systems. Some had to sell their homes or lose them to the mortgage lenders. It was a different way of life going from middle class America to be low-income life styles. The effects were devastating on children and one can only surmise the affects it had on the mothers.
Another good example of the down turn in the economy was the collapse of the aerospace industry in the middle 1990's. In the second chapter of “Stiffed, the Betrayal of the American Man” author Susan Faludi states, “over quarter million manufacturing jobs and more than a half million jobs were lost in Los Angeles County” (52). Those plant closures were phenomenal and left a lasting impact on fathers being able to provide for their families. Men, who once held well-paying jobs and considered providers, were striped of their identity. As the manufacturing industry was changing, jobs began to require additional technical skills and education. Men began to face major losses as unemployment put an iron grip on their lives. As time went on, some men failed to make the change to meet the educational and technical skills in the job market. This was significant as industrialization was being replaced with highly technical jobs and unemployment was the new norm. With fathers out of work and moving away, who was caring for the next generation of youth?
An additional aspect of the absent parent is the lack of the role models. This once was a position of honor, respect, and service by fathers. Portrayed through 1950's television as a “norm” of the nuclear family, fatherhood was clearly stereotyped into the minds of young men. With fathers leaving or already gone, no one was left to fill the role. Left to their own means, children will seek out what is readily available. The worst modern day example that implicitly sent the message “you're not worth it” was from a national basketball hero Charles Barkley (charles-barkley-quotes). When he went on national television and declared, “I'm not a role model,” how his son must have felt betrayed. Many role models portrayed on television or in the movies have fallen as well. When you look at the drug addiction, steroid use, and infidelity among those fathers who live in the public eye, it is disheartening. Stepping up to the plate and making an obvious difference takes commitment. Fathers have an obligation to contribute and raise their offspring. Dr. Ron Klinger believes it is plausible for fathers to become active in their children's lives. He suggests involving communities, policy makers, educators, and social groups to begin addressing potential solutions and reversing the trend of the absentee fathers in today's society (Klinger, Ron USA Today July 1987y p30).
The hardest part of understanding the critical rise in absentee fathers is due to the numerous variables that create them. There is no one reason why the problem continues to escalate and solutions are not readily available. Research barely scratches the surface of why fathers leave, where they go, and if they will come back. What is known is the jobless rates in America are staggering. Jobs are being outsourced, downsized, or eliminated. The large manufacturers such as GM, Kodak, IBM, Bethlehem Steel, and the once great logging industries have downsized, outsourced, or are non existent today. Everyday in the news there is reports of global corporations suffering from the massive lay-offs to bankruptcies. With the current labor markets changing from industrialized to be technological, some men are not making the difficult transition.
Society has not addressed the compelling evidence that absent fathers are the newest plagues in America today. There are no “one size fits all” formulas or intervention on a massive scale to address the problems children face. In addition, role models for young men and women are quickly eroding. With fathers becoming absentees, and mothers unable to fill the voids, children will look to other medians. There they find disappointment in national role models, as they witness the sins of heroes before America. Steroids have brought the National Baseball League to its knees, claiming the biggest names in baseball. Drug addiction is rampant among famous actors and celebrities. Politicians and people living in the public eye face the same social plagues but at a much higher scrutiny. Children are faced with the demoralizing fact that society is changing. They are quickly becoming the new norm, fatherless.
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