Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mundane Mommies and Doting Daddies: Gendered Parenting and Family Museum Visits

  • Published:
Qualitative Sociology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper I use ethnographic fieldwork conducted at four museum sites to explore gendered parenting in one type of middle- and upper-middle-class public setting. I introduce public parenting as an understudied topic, review literature on family-oriented leisure and consumption, and then frame the study’s methods and goals as they relate to these same themes. Comparing mothers to fathers, I show how fathers typically emphasized playfulness with their children while mothers tended to focus on managing their children’s activities; how fathers were more likely to symbolically indulge their children while mothers were more likely to symbolically deprive them; and how fathers generally romanticized family museum visits by regarding them as special and sentimental while mothers were more apt to rationalize those same visits as ordinary and routine. I discuss three factors which help to explain these patterns: contemporary cultures of motherhood and fatherhood, the structuring of paid and unpaid work, and the distinctive social context represented by family-oriented museums. I conclude by addressing the study’s contributions and implications and suggesting opportunities for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bianchi, Suzanne M. 2000. Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity? Demography 37: 401–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, Suzanne M., Melissa A. Milkie, Liana C. Sayer, and John P. Robinson. 2000. Is anyone doing the housework?: Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social Forces 79: 191–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, Suzanne M., John P. Robinson, and Melissa A. Milkie. 2007. Changing rhythms of american family life. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi, Suzanne M., Liana C. Sayer, Melissa A. Milkie, and John P. Robinson. 2012. Housework: Who did, does or will do it and how much does it matter? Social Forces 91: 55–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bittman, Michael, Paula England, Liana Sayer, Nancy Folbre, and George Matheson. 2003. When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology 109: 186–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair-Loy, Mary. 2003. Competing devotions: Career and family among women executives. Boston: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calarco, Jessica McCrory. 2011. “I need help!” Social class and children’s help-seeking in elementary school. American Sociological Review 76: 862–882.

  • Cha, Youngjoo. 2010. Reinforcing separate spheres: The effect of overwork on men’s and women’s employment in dual-earner households. American Sociological Review 75: 303–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chesley, Noelle. 2011. Stay-at-home fathers and breadwinning mothers: Gender, couple dynamics, and social change. Gender and Society 25: 642–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, Randall. 2004. Interaction ritual chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Coltrane, Scott. 1996. Family man: Fatherhood, housework, and gender equity. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coltrane, Scott. 2004. Elite careers and family commitment: It’s (still) about gender. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596: 214–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coltrane, Scott, and Michele Adams. 2001. Men’s family work: Child-centered fathering and the sharing of domestic labor. In Working families, ed. Rosanna Hertz and Nancy L. Marshall, 72–102. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conn, Steven. 2010. Do museums still need objects? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, Daniel Thomas. 2004. The commodification of childhood: The children’s clothing industry and the rise of the child consumer. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Kerry. 1996. Spending time with the kids: Meanings of family time for fathers. Family Relations 45: 466–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Kerry J. 2001. Deconstructing family time: From ideology to lived experience. Journal of Marriage and Family 63: 283–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, Kerry. 2011. Time, gender, and the negotiation of family schedules. Symbolic Interaction 25: 323–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damaske, Sarah. 2011. For the family? How class and gender shape women’s work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniels, Arlene Kaplan. 1987. Invisible work. Social Problems 34: 403–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeVault, Marjorie. 1991. Feeding the family: The social organization of caring as gendered work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeVault, Marjorie L. 2000. Producing family time: Practices of leisure activity beyond the home. Qualitative Sociology 485–503.

  • DiMaggio, Paul. 1982. Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston: The creation of an organizational base for high culture in america. Media, Culture, and Society 4: 33–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edin, Kathryn, and Timothy J. Nelson. 2001. Working steady: Race, low-wage work, and family involvement among noncustodial fathers in Philadelphia. In Problem of the century: Racial stratification in the United States, ed. Elijah Anderson and Douglas S. Massey, 375–404. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edin, Kathryn, and Timothy J. Nelson. 2013. Doing the best I can: Fatherhood in the inner city. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk, John H., and Lynn D. Dierking. 2000. Learning from museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fine, Gary Alan. 1987. With the boys: Little league baseball and preadolescent culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, Bonnie. 2009. When couples become parents: The creation of gender in the transition to parenthood. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garey, Anita Ilta. 1999. Weaving work and motherhood. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerstel, Naomi. 2000. The third shift: Gender and care work outside the home. Qualitative Sociology 23: 467–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillis, John. 1996. Making time for family: The invention of family time(s) and the reinvention of family history. Journal of Family History 21: 4–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 1963. Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 1977. The arrangement between the sexes. Theory and Society 4: 301–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grasmuck, Sherri. 2005. Protecting home: Class, race, and masculinity in boys’ baseball. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grazian, David. 2012. Where the wild things aren’t: Exhibiting nature in american zoos. The Sociological Quarterly 53: 546–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, José-Marie, and Donald W. King. 2008. InterConnections: The IMLS National Study on the Use of Libraries, Museums and the Internet: Museum Survey Results. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

  • Hannigan, John. 1998. Fantasy city: Pleasure and profit in the postmodern metropolis. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hays, Sharon. 1996. The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herridge, Kristi L., Susan M. Shaw, and Roger C. Mannell. 2003. An exploration of women’s leisure within heterosexual romantic relationships. Journal of Leisure Research 35: 274–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, Arlie. 2003. The second shift. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, Jerry A., and Kathleen Gerson. 2004. The time divide: Work, family, and gender inequality. Boston: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1977. Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lareau, Annette. 2000. My wife can tell me who I know: Methodological and conceptual problems in studying fathers. Qualitative Sociology 23: 407–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lareau, Annette. 2003. Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levey, Hilary. 2009. “Which one is yours?”: Children and ethnography. Qualitative Sociology 32: 311–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levine, Lawrence W. 1990. Highbrow/lowbrow: The emergence of cultural hierarchy in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, Elizabeth. 2003. Book clubs: Women and the uses of reading in everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald, Cameron Lynne. 2011. Shadow mothers: Nannies, au pairs, and the micropolitics of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsiglio, William, and Kevin Roy. 2012. Nurturing dads: Social initiatives for contemporary fatherhood. New York: Russell Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Tina. 2005. Making sense of motherhood: A narrative approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Tina. 2011. Making sense of fatherhood: Gender, caring and work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, Mignon R., and Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer. 2013. LGBT sexuality and families at the start of the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Sociology 39: 491–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, Timothy J. 2004. Low-income fathers. Annual Review of Sociology 30: 427–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padavic, Irene, and Barbara Reskin. 2002. Women and men at work. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pugh, Allison J. 2009. Longing and belonging: Parents, children, and consumer culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radway, Janice A. 1991. Reading the romance: Women, patriarchy, and popular literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raley, Sara, Suzanne M. Bianchi, and Wendy Wang. 2012. When do fathers care? Mothers’ economic contribution and fathers’ involvement in child care. American Journal of Sociology 175: 1422–1459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudman, Laurie A., and Peter Glick. 2001. Prescriptive gender stereotypes and backlash toward agentic women. Social Issues 57: 743–762.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, Markella B. 2011. Adult supervision required: Private freedom and public constraints for parents and children. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sayer, Liana C. 2005. Gender, time and inequality: Trends in women’s and men’s paid work, unpaid work and free time. Social Forces 84: 285–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sayer, Liana C., Suzanne M. Bianchi, and John P. Robinson. 2004. Are parents investing less in children? Trends in mothers’ and fathers’ time with children. American Journal of Sociology 110: 1–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Susan M. 1992. Dereifying family leisure: An examination of women’s and men’s everyday experiences and perceptions of family time. Leisure Sciences 14: 271–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Susan M. 1997. Controversies and contradictions in family leisure: An analysis of conflicting paradigms. Journal of Leisure Research 29: 98–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Susan M. 2001. Conceptualizing resistance: Women’s leisure as political practice. Journal of Leisure Research 33: 186–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Susan M. 2008. Family leisure and changing ideologies of parenthood. Sociology Compass 2: 688–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, Susan M., and Don Dawson. 2010. Purposive leisure: Examining parental discourses on family activities. Leisure Sciences 23: 217–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shows, Carla, and Naomi Gerstel. 2009. Fathering, class, and gender: A comparison of physicians and emergency medical technicians. Gender and Society 23: 161–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher, and Gidion Sjoberg. 1982. Interviewing by comment: An adjunct to the direct question. Qualitative Sociology 5: 285–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snyder, Karrie Ann. 2007. A vocabulary of motives: Understanding how parents define quality time. Journal of Marriage and Family 69: 320–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, Pamela. 2008. Opting out?: Why women really quit careers and head home. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wall, Glenda, and Stephanie Arnold. 2007. How involved is involved fathering?: An exploration of the contemporary culture of fatherhood. Gender & Society 21: 508–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. 1987. Doing gender. Gender and Society 1: 125–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Christine L. 2006. Inside toyland: Working, shopping, and social inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, Viviana A. 1994. Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Gertrude and Otto Pollak Summer Research Fellowship from the Sociology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Randall Collins, David Grazian, Demie Kurz, and Robin Leidner as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers at Qualitative Sociology provided many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sociology Department, University of Pennsylvania, 113 McNeil Building, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6299, USA

    Betsie Garner

Authors
  1. Betsie Garner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Betsie Garner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Garner, B. Mundane Mommies and Doting Daddies: Gendered Parenting and Family Museum Visits. Qual Sociol 38, 327–348 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-015-9310-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-015-9310-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation