Understanding father absenteeism in South Africa: Socio-economic factors at play

South Africans recently acknowledged and celebrated Father's Day and numerous retail outlets capitalised on the day by advertising and selling appropriate gifts for men.

The event has always been traditionally celebrated with the various love languages which include verbal affirmations of love, the purchase and giving of a gift to fathers as well as quality time shared by children and fathers on the day.

However, in a society that is fraught with deepening economic gaps, there are sects of our society that still have not been able to enforce lifestyle changes that contribute to improved relationships between fathers and children.

Very few children in South Africa live with both their parents and there are far more single female-headed households than male-headed households.

Approximately 45% of children live with their mothers in South Africa, yet the traditional nuclear family has been the core of building a balanced individual within a functional society.

Only 31.7% of black children live with their biological fathers, compared with 51.3% of Coloured children,  and more than 80% of white and Indian children.

Herein we see a perpetuation of racialised capitalism and the continuation of our skewed society which was partly entrenched by coloniality and Apartheid.

However, the high percentage of Indian and White children living with their biological fathers is also influenced by socio-cultural and economic factors, but we also need to recall that the Indian and White race groups in South Africa constitute the minority population.

Therefore these statistics are utilised as an indicator of family and cultural normative practices amidst the four race groups in SA.

The benefits of both parents raising a child enhance the social and emotional development of a child but more importantly, shared parenting enables parents to give a child consistent care and emotional security.

However, as South African society progresses and adapts to new economic demands, this ideal is now becoming rare.

In middle to lower-class groupings predominantly from the Black and Coloured race group, often one parent is now away from home for extended periods for work purposes.

The man of the family is often the spouse who works away from home for economic upliftment. I have met many families where the husband or father is residing and employed in The United Arab Emirates region because of higher salary packages in comparison to salaries on offer in South Africa.

The stance is that a higher income can take ‘better’ care of their families and children and more importantly provide them with access to better education and resources. Unfortunately, even in two-income households, some families can barely meet expenses and often have to decide to embark on international employment opportunities.

The other contributing factor is that women are still earning substantially less than their male counterparts often in very similar job positions and portfolios. The gender stereotype and gender-assigned traditional role of the male influence the salary dispensation scales in South Africa.

However, with the increasing number of single-female-headed households, these scales need to be adjusted to the new norms of families and structures in South Africa.

Internationally, women earn 16% less than men in the formal sector, and in South Africa, women earn 12% less.  Then there are those parents that are employed in cities or urban areas away from their homes. In these instances, South Africans are commuting home once a week to keep transportation costs to a minimum because of the increased cost of living.

This scenario was historically central to South Africa’s Apartheid Era, where domestic workers resided with the families that employed them and only went home over the weekends to be with their families.

Transportation to and from the urban to rural areas was not frequent and it was expensive for many. Then on the other hand, husbands and fathers were employed by the mines and lived and worked around those areas, resulting in the extended family comprising of elderly parents, aunts, and the community that played the role of the distant parents of the child-headed households.

Stats SA reported that amidst impoverished rural areas, child-headed households have become the norm.  Many children were orphaned during the COVID-19 Pandemic and in addition, alcoholism has become an increasing reason for stress, illness, and ultimately premature death in South Africa.

StatsSA has reported that alcohol poisoning is responsible for approximately 62000 premature deaths annually.

In addition, South Africans are now facing a prevalence of depression and other mental health concerns amidst their male population because of economic-related pressures.

These pressures have also resulted in father absenteeism. Fathers can be present and even live with their spouses and children and yet be emotionally unavailable and limit their time spent with their children because of their mental illnesses and inability to manage their economic stresses well.

In these circumstances, biological fathers can have a distant, strained, or unusual relationship with their children.

The impact of poverty and employee opportunities for the working-class South African has been deemed to be a key reason why father absenteeism has not decreased despite continual development in some rural areas and increased access to transportation facilities.

However, traveling between rural and urban areas in South Africa still remains expensive and challenging for many, which has also fuelled and contributed to single-parent households in South Africa and in particular father absenteeism.  

Other scenarios that contribute towards father absenteeism include same-sex couples that choose to parent, divorce as well and teenage pregnancies which result in the mother predominantly being the only active parent.

The economic pressures and demands of the recent cost of living have put many fathers under immense pressure, and often because they have many responsibilities, they are absent not out of choice but out of need.

Women are now learning to become single parents in their absence and are forced to adopt both roles of the mother and father.

The traditional ideals of parenting have shifted and South Africans need to understand how and why this progression has taken place. Economic pressures force many families to cope with father absenteeism.

DAILY NEWS