Our response to David Cameron’s comments about ‘runaway dads’
Here is the Fatherhood Institute’s response to David Cameron’s comments about the UK needing to stigmatise absent fathers:
“Fathers who deliberately walk away from their children are a small minority. In most cases the reasons why men lose contact with their children are more morally ambiguous and often have to do with multiple obstacles non-resident parents face in being involved with their children. We do need to expect more from fathers. David Cameron has lots of policy levers he can pull to make it clear that we expect just as much from fathers as from mothers – starting with requiring men to sign the birth certificates. Currently only mothers are required to register a child’s birth. It is the law itself that needs to raise our expectations of fatherhood.”
Read responses from the FI and others in Children & Young People Now.
Read Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view.
Read others’ responses on BBC Online.
Read letters published in The Sunday Telegraph on 26 June 2011, in response to Mr Cameron’s comments in the previous week’s edition.
To find out more about fathers and the reality of family separation, read our research summary.
Tags: Fatherhood policy, Separated families
