Performing social work: Young fathers’ reflections on social work

Abstract Young fathers are marginalized by parenting discourses which focus on women and negative discourses about young people as parents. In this study, young fathers explored their discursive constructions of their own and social workers’ identities and considered their perceptions of social workers as professionals involved in their children’s lives, as well as their thoughts about how they felt social workers view their role as fathers. The study applied Butler’s performativity and gender performances with young fathers to explore how they think social workers perform social work and used critical discourse analysis to examine data from an online focus group of young fathers. While the fathers demonstrated capacity to recognize their own parenting and how this has evolved, they explained social workers expect them to reproduce negative parenting stereotypes and inhabit a role less deserving of support than mothers. This study highlights how young dads experience intersectional discrimination as young people and fathers and concludes by recommending that safe spaces are needed for relationships of trust to be developed between social workers and young dads where their own needs for support can be voiced. Meeting these needs is critical if fathers are to be encouraged and recognized as involved parents.