Becoming a “Good” Father in the Context of Czech Social Work

This article explores how fatherhood is experienced by the clients of Czech family social workers, paying particular attention to how class, ethnic, and gender inequalities shape these experiences. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 11 fathers, the study employs a critical, intersectional, and structural social work perspective to analyse fathers’ narratives about their paternal identities and everyday lives. The findings reveal that fatherhood is constructed and negotiated within systemic constraints, such as insecure housing, precarious labour, and institutionalised gender norms. Fathers strive to embody the ideals of the “good” father, typically defined through breadwinning, but their efforts are undermined by structural exclusion and stigma. The study argues that paternal identity in contexts of social exclusion must be understood not as an individual trait, but as a politically and institutionally shaped phenomenon.