Masculinity and paternal care

Educating to the freedom to be oneself

Abstract

The current transformations of the paternal role are as evident in concrete social dynamics as in their mass media representation. A new father, more present, emotional, empathetic and committed to caring for his children, seems more and more the protag-onist of our contemporaneity. This reality, however, clashes with the patriarchal tradition that centred on the figure of a father who was certainly a breadwinner, but distant and not very present with respect to his children. This change in the paternal role can become an opportunity for a positive modification of the current gender order, which is still strongly conditioned by patri-archy. For this to happen, however, it is necessary to change the hierarchical pedagogical relationship that still presides over the upbringing of sons.