The cultural and policy context of fatherhood

The US occupies a rather unique position among advanced countries when it comes to family policy in general, and policies directed at fathers in particular. It has neither a coherent set of family policies nor a federal administrative body, such as a ‘Department of Families and Youth’, to implement such policies, and the term ‘family policy’ is not used in public discourse (Bogenscheider and Corbett, 2010; Coltrane and Behnke, 2013). This may be due to the dominant cultural belief that the family is a private domain that should not be part of public policy. Hence, most working parents do not receive public social protections and rely on the workplace for family leave and on the market for childcare provision (Orloff and Monson, 2002). For example, the US is the only advanced country, as well as one of only four nations in the world, that has no statutory rights to paid maternity leave for employees (Hara and Hegewisch, 2013). The lack of statutory laws on paid family-related leave and public childcare reflects the reluctance of the government to pursue coherent family policies such as those found in European countries. Even among liberal welfare states, which are characterised by low social spending and very limited means-tested social benefits, this is an exceptional position. The US's public spending in 2009 for social expenditures was 19.2% (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] = 22.1%) and spending on family benefits is the lowest (besides Korea and Mexico) in the OECD – 1.22% of gross domestic product (GDP) (OECD average = 2.61%). The proportion of public social spending on early childhood was 12%, much lower than the other OECD countries (OECD, 2012). In place of providing support for all parents via paid leave and child allowances, the US government relies on the tax system and employers to help middle-class families. The tax credit against owed taxes for employed parents with dependent children covers only part of the annual costs incurred by children. In addition, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low-income workers with children can lift working poor parents above the poverty line.