About Andrea

I’m Andrea Doucet, Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Brock University in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada, and mother of three (a young adult and twin teens). Since the day our first daughter was born, I have shared parenting with my husband, who is a naturopathic doctor. For most of the past twenty years, I have been the primary breadwinner in our family.

It hasn’t always been a bowl of cherries – or a bed of roses. Parenting is hard work; each stage has its own unique challenges. There have been times when I want to scream – “I want a wife!” There are other times when I am so grateful to have a partner who shares fully in parenting and managing our household, and who supports me unconditionally in what I do. We both grew up in large families where our mothers were primary caregivers and our fathers the sole breadwinners; we have continually pressed up against the role models of the past and the social scripts that define mothering and fathering. It’s been a constant dance: lots of juggling, struggling, and re-negotiating our parenting, work, and household responsibilities.

So I’ve been here for a long time, as a breadwinning mom who actively thinks about these issues with a male partner, but also as a scholar, qualitative researcher and a participatory researcher who has a passion – and an interpretive eye and ear – for the stories of breadwinning mothers and caregiving fathers.

I am the author of Do Men Mother? as well as many book chapters and journal articles on changing mothering and fathering. I am currently completing a book on breadwinning moms and their male partners.

To receive updates on the book project and to be part of this conversation, please click here.

For more on my research and my professional background, click here.