Data Dive: How people view fatherhood around the world

Roles within families are ‘a-changin’.

Just a few decades ago, fathers were expected to get paid work outside the home to put bread on the table and mothers were expected to, well, slice up that bread, raise the kids and do all the unpaid labour of keeping a home.

That’s not necessarily the case anymore.

These days, young dads in many countries are often much more involved in the day-to-day caring of their children than their fathers and grandfathers were.

But, that doesn’t mean opinions on fatherhood have necessarily caught up to the realities of parenting in 2023.

With many countries marking Father’s Day on June 18, we take a deeper dive into a range of issues, from whether the COVID-19 pandemic influenced men’s decision to have a child to whether fathers are as satisfied with their kids as mothers are.

1. Role reversal. While families come in all shapes and sizes these days, stay-at-home dads are still relatively rare in most societies.

Not everyone is cheering on males taking on traditionally female roles.?

Polling via Ipsos’ Global Advisor earlier this year found men were actually slightly more likely than women to agree that ?“a man who stays at home to look after his children is less of a man.”

2. Family-work balance. The past few years of pandemic-era schooling and working have highlighted just how hard it can be for mothers and fathers to keep clear lines between personal and professional commitments.

Things can get blurry.

And while many don’t think the careers of either men or women will suffer when lines do blur, relatively few (on average across 30 countries) think men would face more career damage than women for everything from having childcare responsibilities pop up during the working day to prioritizing family over work.?

3. Boom went bust. In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, late-night TV hosts joked there would be a global baby boom as couples around the world were stuck inside together with nothing much to do besides, ahem, making babies. That didn’t happen.

Turns out concern about COVID-19 was a factor in choosing to delay having/not having a child during 2020-2021. Even during the early years of the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic more run-of-the-mill reasons (being single and money worries) were the top drivers of family-planning decisions for both men and women.

4. Happiness drivers. Ads, pop culture and social media can make being a dad appear to be all fun baseball games and fishing trips, yet the reality is it’s also about changing diapers and schlepping kids to soccer practice.

Even so, it’s pretty surprising that data analysis of recent Ipsos global polling finds being a parent is not a key driver of overall happiness.

In fact, one’s kids rank last (30 out of 30) in a list of factors that correlate strongly with reported happiness levels of both men and women.?

5. High satisfaction. As every dad to a toddler (or a teen…) throwing a tantrum likely knows — children can be a source of exasperation or satisfaction depending on the day. ?

Yet, the pluses look to outweigh the minuses for most.

Despite the challenges of parenthood, the vast majority of both fathers (84%, on average across 32 countries) and mothers (85%) are satisfied with their kids.

For more data and analysis from home and around the world, visit our website:?https://www.ipsos.com/en/news-and-events/news.