Gender and parenting : the (re)production and (re)negotiation of gender identity in the context of first time parenting.

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the ways in which first‐time parents construct their gender identity as they grapple with a new addition to the family soon after the birth of their first child. Two white middle‐class heterosexual couples participated in the semi‐structured interviews. The study took a social constructionist perspective and the data analysis followed a critical discourse analysis approach. The broad findings are fivefold: competing ideologies persist within these comparatively modern couples’ discourses; equality is a disruption to gender identity; the construction of motherhood compared to fatherhood is asymmetrically evaluative; for these mothers, the transition from non‐parent to parent is a more embodied experience; and the transitional period of becoming a parent provides both opportunity and resistance towards new versions of gender identity.