The Fatherhood Institute has three ongoing concerns:

¦To change work so that fathers can be more available to care for their children. We want to see more fathers, including fathers on low incomes, working flexibly and part-time, and taking more leave off for caring.

¦To change education so that boys are prepared for future caring roles and boys and girls are prepared for the future sharing of these roles. We want to see children and young people discussing gender inequalities and understanding that mothers and fathers experience pressure to specialise in caring and earning roles, and that mothers and fathers should have a similar range of choices over their caring roles, not limited by gender. We want to see more encouragement of boys into childcare careers.

¦To change supports to family life so that the caring role of fathers and father-figures is recognised and strongly supported. We want laws, policies and public services to encourage and enable fathers to invest more of their time and energy in the direct care of their children. We want all health, education, family and children’s services to be “father-inclusive” – that is, to support fathers in their caring roles as seriously as they currently support mothers.