The Femitist = Feminism + Scientist
This is a journal for a Women's Studies class I'm taking at SDSU in San Diego, CA. Although it is intended for the class, I appreciate any feedback or discussion.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Fatherhood depletes testosterone, study finds - Los Angeles Times
This article is related to class discussion on gender roles (9/8), gender being a social construct (9/13) and issues relating to LGBTQ identities as discussed in our introductory paper.
The study addressed in this article suggests that “becoming a father may make you less of a man” by decreasing testosterone levels but goes on to indicate that “men are evolutionary wired to help raise their children”.
The indication is that participatory fathers become “softer” and more nurturing to their children, decreasing testosterone.
Research on 624 Philippine men who were 21 years old indicated that men with higher testosterone levels at the beginning of the study were more likely to become fathers, but that fathers actively involved in parenting saw decreased testosterone levels by 43% in the morning and 49% in the evening when compared to the single men (control) group.
Two parent households with full participation by both parents strongly correlates with more productive societies with lower violent crime and more harmony.
This is significant because:
- Traditional gender roles of masculine fathers and feminine mothers are rapidly changing.
- Non-traditional families are on the rise -> same-sex couples raising children and single women raising children.
- Even among heterosexual couples, we see less traditional gender roles. “Stay at home Dads” are on the rise as well as situations where both parents work full time. Traditional gender roles are becoming blurred or in some cases even reversed.
Statistics indicate (source 1) (source 2):
- Single family households are 5x more likely to be poor than two-parent households (7.8% of two-parent households below the poverty line versus 38.4% of single family households)
- 39% of jail inmates lived in one-parent households
- A study of 13,986 women in jail showed that more than half had absent fathers.
- INTERPOL studied 39 countries and found a high correlation between single family households and children/teens who commit violent crimes.
The implication is that “feminized” men are good for society - full parental participation inversely correlates with poverty and crime.
