南非的男人也會照顧小孩
South Africa has one of the highest rates of absent fathers in sub-Saharan Africa.
在撒哈拉以南非洲地區，南非是父親缺席率最高的國家之一。As much as 60% of children in the country under the age of 10 don't live with their biological fathers - the second highest rate of absence in sub-Saharan Africa - after Namibia. This compares to one-third in the United States.
在南非十歲以下的兒童中，約60%的人都沒有和自己的生身父親生活在一起--在撒哈拉以南非洲，這是父親缺席率第二高的國家--第一是納米比亞。相比之下，美國父親的缺席率爲三分之一。South Africa's statistics are influenced by the history of migrant labour. Expropriation of the land of black Africans by colonial authorities, coupled with the levying of taxes, forced men (and later, women) to move to the growing cities to earn an income, while their wives and children stayed in the rural reserves or "homelands".
移民勞動的那段歷史影響了南非的這一數據。由於移民當局徵用非洲黑人的土地，再加上徵稅，因此男人（後來也有女人）被迫搬到發展中的城市賺錢，但他們的妻子和孩子仍留在農村或"老家"。
But there are other factors at play too. These include gender norms about childcare and the different roles attached to fathers and mothers. These norms also generally lead to men - even if they are physically present - making minimal contributions to unpaid care and household work.
其它因素也在起作用。這包括育兒的性別常模以及社會賦予父母的不同角色。這些常模通常使得男人對無酬養育和家務活貢獻甚少--即使他們在家也是這樣。
A large volume of research - including the Centre for Social Development in Africa's "ATM Fathers" - has shown that among both men and women, fathers are widely considered as primarily being responsible for supporting the family financially. These attitudes frequently lead men - or enable them - to sidestep non-financial care responsibilities.
大量研究（包括非洲社會發展中心的"自助提款機父親"）表明：在男人和女人之間，人們廣泛認爲父親是負責經濟上養家的主力軍。這些態度通常導致男人或使得男人迴避非經濟照顧的責任。But in a context of widespread unemployment, inability to earn an income and fulfil the "provider" role often leads men to abandon their children. This leaves women with the double burden of being the sole breadwinner as well as the person primarily responsible for unpaid care and household work. This, in turn, reinforces gender inequality as women have less time to pursue market work, education, leisure and civic life, and are expected to sacrifice their own interests for those of children.
但在普遍失業的背景下，賺不到錢和不能履行"維持家庭生計者"的角色會導致男人拋棄自己的孩子。所以女性會面臨雙重負擔：既要養家餬口又要無酬育兒、做家務活。這反過來又加重了性別不平等，因爲女性去市場上找工作的時間更少，沒有什麼時間受教育、休閒、享受公民生活，同時還被期望着爲了孩子犧牲自己的利益。But there are men who choose to be involved fully in the care of their children despite economic difficulty. We have done research into the reasons for this involvement, and the different forms that it takes. The initial research has been done by Masters students Manon van der Meer and Hylke Hoornstra, and forms part of my PhD which is due to be published early next year. We also examined men's attitudes towards gender, and how they define their masculine and paternal identities in the context of caring for children.
但儘管經濟困難，有些男人卻選擇全職照顧自己的孩子。我們爲此做了研究，不同形式的各種研究。最初的研究是由研究生Manon van der Meer和Hylke Hoornstra開展的，也是我讀博期間的一部分，將於明年初發表。我們也測試了在育兒的背景下，男人對性別的態度，對男子漢氣概和父系身份的定義。
