The Emergence of a New Model of Fatherhood in Argentina (1950-1975)

Abstract

This article studies the emergence of a new model of fatherhood in Argentina between 1950 and 1975. In keeping with this model, fathers should play a more active role in raising their children and maintain a closer, more colloquial and fluid relationship with them. Two aspects of the process are analyzed on the basis of various sources, such as child-raising manuals, women’s, news and child-raising magazines, family radio and TV comedies and archive materials. On the one hand, the author observes how the psychological paradigm of child-raising and the media encouraged the dissemination of the model among a growing public, and the consolidation of its contents. On the other, it is suggested that the model created doubts and consternation among parents and that there was a large gap between the model and everyday practices.