Parents Magazine", 1929-1994

University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1996 Illusions of change: An analysis of the fatherhood discourse in "Parents Magazine", 1929-1994 Candice Leonard University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Leonard, Candice, "Illusions of change: An analysis of the fatherhood discourse in "Parents Magazine", 1929-1994" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations. 1894. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1894 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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ILLUSIONS OF CHANGE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FATHERHOOD DISCOURSE IN PARENTS MAGAZINE, 1929-1994 by CANDICE LEONARD B.A., Queens College, 1977 M.A., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1978 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology May, 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9627161 Copyright 1996 by Leonard, Candice All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9627161 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ® 1996 Candice Leonard Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation Director, Heather A. Turner Assistant Professor, Sociology Michael J. Donnelly Associate Professor of Sociology Arnold S. Linsky Professor of Sociology I Melody Graufich Professor of English Lucy E. Salter ( jj Associate Professor of History fliatj 3, mb________ Date v] Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For Janna and Adam and their 21st century families iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements Completing this project was a long and winding road, with a huge detour. I am very fortunate that there were many caring people encouraging me to get back on the road and to help me through the sharp curves and inclines. I must thank Professors Arnie Linsky and Sally Ward for easing my return to sociology at the University of New Hampshire. Were it not for their sensitivity, none of this would have happened. I must also thank my committee members, each of whom helped me to make this a better project than it would otherwise have been. I would like to thank Arnie Linsky for his comments at the early stages of this project which helped me to believe in its value, and for his comments at the latter stages which forced me to clarify some key issues. I would like to thank Michael Donnelly for understanding some of the nuances that I wanted to express and for highlighting the importance of theoretical precision. I want to thank Lucy Salyer for carefully reading this dissertation with a historian’s eye, and for helping me integrate history into the analysis. I want to thank Melody Graulich for her engaged reading of “this,” and for making me a better writer. I want to thank my advisor, Heather Turner, for helping me frame the important questions, and for offering helpful and enthusiastic feedback about this project when it was at the notes-on-a-napkin stage, and many times since. I also want to thank Heather for keeping me on task and setting deadlines. I must also thank Heather for gently v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. managing my occasional inclination toward commentary and colloquialism, and for not assuming - as others have in the past - that these forms of expression are incompatible with being a serious scholar. I want to thank Carolyn Mebert for crisis intervention at all hours of the day and night, and for explaining statistical concepts in such a way that I actually had fun with SPSS. I want to thank Mara Witzling for her unofficial “close reading” of the dissertation, and for countless hours of conversation about gender, culture and parenthood, which have been personally and professionally enriching. I also have to thank Mara for helping me keep the goal in sight, and for indulging my dissertation- induced agoraphobia by showing up on my doorstep with coffee. I want to thank Iris Estabrook for getting me out to walk now and then, which was both physically and mentally uplifting. I also want to thank Ellen Barnett for asking the simple but important question, Judith Gerstenblatt for understanding the enormity of it all, Alix Handelsman and Liz Goldman for their supportive e-mail which allowed me to feel that I still had some semblance of a social life, and Kathleen Soldati for her unflagging enthusiasm. I want to thank Marc Leonard for continually presenting the argument that a critical world view is an asset. I also want to thank Marc for his on-line technical support and for being there to IM with at 4am E.S.T. I want to thank The Pretenders for “Mystery Achievement,” and The Beatles and Bob Dylan for providing models of critical creativity when I was most susceptible. Most of all, I must thank my friend-husband-lover-colleague Joshua Meyrowitz. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Josh was there when this project began, a third of my life ago. Then, now, and at all times in between, he has offered me support, encouragement and good humor. There is no one else on the planet who understands the extremes of misery and joy that this endeavor has brought me, and he has shared both. I look forward to the next phase of our adventure. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION........................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................xii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................xvi I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 Transition to Parenthood .......................................................................... 3 Division of Labor and Expectations ........................................................ 6 A Cultural Definition of Parenthood: Parents Magazine, 1929-1994... 12 II. METHODS..................................................................................................... 19 Quantitative Content Analysis ................................................................. 19 Qualitative Content Analysis .................................................................... 22 Context Analysis and the Micro/Macro Link ......................................... 25 A Content Analysis of Parents Magazine................................................ 27 Familywork................................................................................................. 30 Periodization Issues ...................................................................................

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