From this Mere Comments entry from Touchstone's website, comes a summary of a forthcoming book (Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, Chicago, May 2004). Jim Kushiner quotes the summary in full, but here are the money paragraphs (all emphases added):
According to W. Bradford Wilcox, the divergent family ideologies of evangelical and mainline churches do not translate into large differences in family behavior between evangelical and mainline Protestant men who are married with children. Both mainline and evangelical Protestant family men tend to be more involved and affectionate with their wives and children.
Mainline Protestant men, he contends, are "new men" who take a more egalitarian approach to the division of household labor than their conservative peers and a more involved approach to parenting than men with no religious affiliation. Evangelical Protestant men, meanwhile, are "soft patriarchs"--not as authoritarian as some would expect, and given to being more emotional and dedicated to their wives and children than both their mainline and secular counterparts.
Thus, Soft Patriarchs, New Men largely disconfirms the charges made by leading feminists, journalists, and family scholars that evangelicalism is a force for reaction in American family life. Although evangelical family men are stricter fathers, and less inclined to do housework, they devote more time and emotional energy to their families than the average American family man. Wilcox therefore concludes that religion--including evangelical Protestantism--domesticates men in ways that make them more responsive to the aspirations and needs of their wives and children.
("Um, excuse me, sir? Yes. I'll have some of that patriarchy, please!")
Posted by Clifton at April 15, 2004 06:00 AM | TrackBackNo "hard patriarchy" in our household. My wife never makes me a sandwich when I tell her to.
(Somehow I fear I'm going to regret having posted this.)
Posted by: MichaelG at April 15, 2004 11:01 AM