Online media experiences of caregiving fathers: A study of leave‐taking fathers in South Korea

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Youngcho Lee
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12817

RESEARCH

Online media experiences of caregiving fathers:

A study of leave-taking fathers in South Korea

Youngcho Lee

Department of Social Policy, London School

of Economics and Political Science, London,

United Kingdom

Correspondence

Department of Social Policy, London School

of Economics and Political Science, London.

Houghton St, London WC2A 2AE,

United Kingdom.

Email: y.lee28@lse.ac.uk

Abstract

Objective: This work aims to document the different ways

in which leave-taking fathers in South Korea engage with

online media to address some of their challenges as male

primary caregivers.

Background: Although involved and caring fathers are

becoming more common, childcare responsibilities still

remain gendered. To equalize the gendered division of

childcare, there is a need to gain a better understanding of

the cultural barriers that fathers face in caring for their

children and the ways that fathers could be supported,

including through informal online communities.

Methods: This article qualitatively analyzes semistructured

interviews with fathers in Korea as well as posts from

blogs by parents of young children about their experiences

of taking parental leave and being a primary caregiver for

their children.

Results: Caregiving fathers experience similar exclusion

and isolation in offline and online spheres from both com-

munities dominated by mothers and those dominated by

men who do not identify as caregivers. However, by

engaging in online media communities for caregiving

fathers, they learn to be better caregivers, connect with

other fathers, and influence other parents through their

online activities. Although such online activities allow

fathers to address their various struggles as male care-

givers, some fathers voiced reservations and critiques of

online communities.

Conclusion: In general, most fathers reported positive

experiences from online activities that allowed them to

address their experiences of exclusion as male caregivers,

but there remains room for greater inclusion and accessi-

bility for fathers.

Received: 1 June 2022Revised: 16 September 2022Accepted: 13 November 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12817

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2023 The Author. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

426 Family Relations. 2023;72:426–442.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

Implications: There is a need for online communities to

become more diverse, better promoted, more inclusive,

and more easily accessible for fathers.

KEYWORDS

childcare, community, fathers, online media, South Korea

Over the past few decades, countries around the world have witnessed an increase in the promi-

nence of, as well as attention to, fathers’roles as caregivers. Yet at the same time, childcare

remains highly gendered, with mothers continuing to bear the majority of childcare responsibili-

ties around the world, but particularly in East Asia. An important question in this context

would be how the gendered division of caregiving could be equalized further. One key policy

intervention involves incentivizing fathers to take parental leave, but it is equally important to

identify cultural barriers to fathers’caregiving as well as less formalized ways through which

fathers could receive support in caring for their children.

Previous studies have documented fathers’experiences of exclusion in (female-dominant)

childcare settings (Brooks & Hodkinson, 2020; Doucet, 2006,2009,2018; Gill et al., 2021). A

separate body of literature has more recently focused on the mediating role that online media

activities play in fathers’identities, experiences, and relationships (Hodkinson & Das, 2021;

Hunter & Riggs, 2019; Scheibling, 2020a,2020b,2020c). Building on such existing scholarship,

this article profiles how leave-taking fathers in Korea engage in a range of activities using online

media to address some of their challenges as male caregivers. It demonstrates both the positive

and less positive experiences and sentiments expressed by these fathers, based on which the arti-

cle discusses some practical suggestions for online parenting communities and platforms, partic-

ularly those aimed at fathers.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows. I first review the theoretical andempir-

ical literature on the intersections of fathers, caregiving, and online media that will inform this

study. I then offer a brief review of the key developments relating to involved fatherhood in the

Korean context before presenting the data and methods used in the study. The findings section

is followed by a discussion and conclusion, including the implications and limitations of the

study.

FATHERS, CAREGIVING, AND SOME CHALLENGES

Traditionally, men have been understood as the default and ungendered worker, while consider-

ations of care for children have been implicitly equated with women (Hearn, 2010; Hearn &

Pringle, 2006). However, in recent decades, there have been notable advancements in critical

studies of men and masculinities and also attention to and research on fathers who engage in

caregiving. This has also coincided with the introduction of policy initiatives around the world

aimed at engendering caring men and equalizing caring duties, most notably incentives for

fathers to take childcare leave (Koslowski et al., 2021;O’Brien & Wall, 2017).

Previous research on men’s engagement in caregiving (Brandth & Kvande, 2018;

Doucet, 2018; Hanlon, 2012; Johansson, 2011;O’Brien & Wall, 2017; Ranson, 2015;

Rehel, 2013) has documented a process of transformation in which fathers come to embody

more egalitarian and nurturing identities and actively reconstruct their own masculine identities

as well as broader societal understandings of masculinities. The emerging “caring masculinities”

is understood to signal a disruption of and a progressive shift away from conventional hege-

monic masculinities (Connell, 2005) conceptualized on the basis of men’s roles in paid work

ONLINE MEDIA EXPERIENCES OF CAREGIVING FATHERS427