Vårdande fäder och passiva mödrar? En kritisk diskursanalys av familjerättsutredningar utifrån föreställningar om genus

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine how discourses regarding gender and parenting are produced and reproduced in assessments about child custody, living and contact arrangements. These court ordered custody evaluations are essential for the courts making the final legal decisions in high-conflict cases where parents are questioning each other’s ability to parent, often accusing each other of various wrongdoings. For the social worker the aim is to assess the situation, focusing exclusively on the best interest of the child. We have looked at eleven evaluations and analysed these with the help of Fairclough´s Critical Discourse Analysis. When reading the assessments, we have focused primarily on the way the parents describe themselves and each other. Additionally, we have looked at how collateral sources (e.g. teachers, day-care personnel, physicians, therapists) describe the parents and lastly, how the social worker describes the parents. Using theories about construction of gender as well as research about parenting, families and the construction of motherhood and fatherhood we have been able to categorize common themes in the reports. These themes are, uninvolved fathers – responsible mothers, mothers who sabotage the father- child relationship, division of labour, values and identification and the best interest of the child. By exploring these themes, we have been able to identify and analyse prevailing discourses as well as counter discourses about gender and parenting. While we have recognized several discourses that can be connected to traditional gender roles, the assessments have also demonstrated the complex reality we live in where discourses about parenting are constantly being challenged and thus, keep changing.