Megan Doolittle
Fathers, Fathering, Fatherhood: Masculinity and the protection of children in Victorian English families

This paper explores a gendered concept of protection as a feature of relationships of authority and care between parents and children in nineteenth-century England. Throughout this period, fathers were understood to have set duties and authorities through the dual relationships of blood with their children and marriage with their mother. These were enshrined in law, built into property and labour relationships, and permeated kinship and many other social networks. Women as mothers could not exercise the full range of authority available to men, and often did not have the means to offer protection in their own right. Thus it was fathers who were expected to provide many forms of protection for their dependents, particularly children and wives but also servants, employees, students or apprentices. The nature of expectations was very diverse across class, generation, geographical location and the nature of the dependency. However, a generalised concept which included protection from physical danger and hardship, from exploitation, and from moral contamination was so pervasive that there were relatively few formal sanctions against men who were unsuccessful or unwilling to fulfil expectations appropriate to their social standing. A number of case studies will be drawn upon to find ways in which these sanctions and limits became visible and disputed, and to explore the relationship between protection and fathers, fathering and fatherhood.