Single Parents in Swedish Media: Representations of "lone" parenthood 2010-20
This project explores how the concept “lone parent” gains meaning in Sweden in the twenty-first century. With mediated representations of lone parents (parenthood, parenting) in news media, life writing, film, and television as its empirical basis, the project investigates and theorizes contemporary understandings of this familial phenomenon. Demographic, political, technological, and juridical changes in the past two decades have effects on who is a lone parent in Sweden, and under what circumstances. Numbers of lone-parent families depend on, inter alia, social developments as diverse as migration, divorce/separation and re-constituted families, and developments in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SCB 2014, 2016, 2018). Currently, twenty-five per cent of all children in Sweden have parents who do not live together. Hence, experiences of lone parenthood are widespread in contemporary Sweden. However, while the lone parent (especially the lone mother) is often seen as part of the “everyday” of family lives in Sweden, they also figure as a “special case” that counters family/couple norms, and in ways that are heavily linked to gender and class. The project contributes new knowledge about how lone parents are conceptualized and represented, and how social realities of lone parents gain visibility in different genres in contemporary Sweden. The project is interdisciplinary and explores lone parenthood via perspectives from cultural studies, social studies, and gender studies.
Final report
Scientific report
Single Parents in Swedish Media: Representations of “Lone” Parenthood 2010-2020. (P19-0790:1)
Helena Wahlström Henriksson (PI)
Project aims and development: The purpose of the project was to investigate various Swedish media’s representations of single parents during the period 2010-2020. The research has answered the basic research questions, and more precise new questions have also been formulated for each sub-study. Among them are, for example, questions about how cooperation between separated parents is portrayed, the time dimensions of single parenthood, and how class and respectability are portrayed in different media. In each sub-study/publication during the project years, we have focused on one specific media form at a time: news press, film, television, or literature. Over time, we have also been able to refer to our previous studies and make comparisons between different media/genres.
Implementation: During the project’s three years, we have collaborated closely with data collection, analysis, writing, presentations and publications. In year 1, a student assistant was hired on an hourly basis to help with the collection of news press data via the Mediearkivet. The researchers have held intensive 3 day work meetings approximately twice per semester, with zoom meetings in between. The researchers have met with the reference group every semester (online during the pandemic; later in Uppsala). The Mid-term review at RJ took place in October 2021. In Spring 2022, the project researchers made a trip to London for meetings with scholars and work at the British Library. The researchers have also had “writing retreats” every semester to start new publications and complete/revise ongoing ones. Meetings have predominantly taken place in Uppsala, at the Center for Gender Research or at Hotel Clarion Gillet. Two writing weeks have been held at conference hotels in other locations (in Vadstena and Nynäshamn, both in 2023). The collaboration has worked very well and will continue after the end of the funded project period, with further conference presentations in 2024 (Sociologidagarna in Gothenburg, Nordic Sociology Association in Norrköping, and European Sociology Association in Porto). Furthermore, the initial plan to do comparative studies of representations across several media forms was not feasible as a first step, in article publications, but will be undertaken in a next step, as we are co-writing a book that summarizes and synthesizes all the results of the project (planned publication 2025).
COVID-19 effects: internationalization has taken place both via online conferences and live meetings; scientific contacts as well. Due to COVID-19, internationalization could not be undertaken according to the initial plan, and therefore the project was granted an extended time for use of internationalization funding, until September 2024.
A brief reflection on the 3 most important findings of the project
Different media and different genres contain different images of single parents – differences that relate to gender/gender, class, ethnicity, age/stage of life, etc., as well as to how the concept is charged with meaning (as linked to stigma, normalization, vulnerability, resilience, etc.). Different types of single parents, and different family situations figure differently depending on the media form. The middle-class woman dominates television series, while economically disadvantaged mothers are more common in the daily press. When single parents are portrayed as individuals rather than as a collective in the daily press, there is a greater breadth in terms of socioeconomic status and ethnicity/race for single fathers than for single mothers.
The "normalization" of single parenthood in Sweden figures in the media representations - sometimes it is confirmed, sometimes it is questioned. The daily press frequently writes about single parents, but never attach social or moral stigma to this family form. In the daily press, the most common reference to single parents as a collective is to poor, vulnerable mothers, but these are portrayed as fighting and hard-working heroes, not as social problems. Single fathers are also portrayed as good at balancing family and work and as responsible everyday parents. But single fathers in literary depictions feel a lack of legitimacy as parents and worry about losing contact with the children. Single parents in film fail as parents in that they cannot care or provide for, nor communicate with, their children, and often, films portray parent-child contact as broken. Hence, in film and literature, the “normality” of single parenthood is questioned.
The single parent in the media can confirm or undermine dominant societal discourses, and we see clear tendencies regarding in which media this occurs. Representations in the daily press are more in line with Swedish family policy and gender equality ideals in texts about fathers, than in texts about mothers. Both single mothers and fathers as individuals are mainly described positively as struggling, hard-working good parents, i.e. in line with ideas about single parents as “ordinary taxpayers.” Other media: film, television and literature, where the focus on problems and family dysfunction is strong, go against these dominant social discourses, thereby questioning them.
New research questions generated by/during the project:
Questions about how co-parenting figures and is portrayed - and how it is connected to family situation, class, gender, ethnicity and age.
Questions about how time and temporalities figure in representations of single parenthood: the time of single parenthood – what are its beginnings? Does it have an end? Historical time and its significance for life as a single parent. Time in the life course and changes in single parenthood through different life stages.
Questions about the place of loneliness in the single-parent family: both the loneliness of the parent in the absence of supportive networks, and the loneliness of the single-parent family as the only one of its kind in the story – the isolated single parent is a common image across all media forms.
Dissemination of research results; collaborations and outreach
The results have been published and disseminated at scientific conferences nationally (e.g. the Swedish Sociology Association conference “Sociologidagarna” in 2022 and 2024) and internationally (e.g. International Association for Biography and Autobiography Studies/IABA (Turku 2022); conferences on motherhood in television and film (Maynooth 2021, 2022), the Nordic Sociology Association conference (Linköping/Norrköping 2024), and the European Sociology Association conference (Porto, 2024), in popular science lectures and in teaching within e.g. sociology programs, teacher training programs, and courses in gender studies, as well as via publications in both scientific and popular-science forms. The extent of dissemination exceeds the initial project plan.
We decided during Year 1 to edit and publish a popular science book, as well as write own chapters and an introduction to this volume. The members of the reference group, along with other researchers and authors, were also invited to contribute chapters. The book, Enförälderfamiljer ([One-Parent Families] Makadam 2023), is an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and multi-voiced contribution, with chapters that take their point of departure in either media representations, interviews, or the author’s personal experiences.
We have held seminars on parts of the project at, for example, Uppsala University, Linnaeus University, Jönköping University, Turun Yliopisto, Maynooth University, as well as guest lectures by HWH at Toronto Metropolitan University and Vilnius University. We have held open presentations to the general public at Uppsala city library, among other venues. An article in Uppsala Nya Tidning was published in 2023 on the occasion of the publication of the collection Enförälderfamilj. During the course of the project, we have had collaborations and valuable dialogues with individual researchers, e.g. Liz Podnieks (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada), and Stella Bruzzi (UCL) as well as Sara de Benedictis (Brunel University) and Kate Gilchrist (LSE), and Vanessa May (Manchester University), and with researchers in Inter/National networks, for example: MotherNet (EU Twinning); as well as the Nordforsk-funded network NORPA; and with The FAMKIN Research group at Uppsala University. A project homepage developed at the outset, and has been continuously updated; OA publications are also available via this website. The final international Symposium was held in Uppsala in September 2023; the event was very successful in terms of new networking, research exchange, and generating new research ideas.
Link to project webpage:
https://www.gender.uu.se/forskning/projekt/ensamstaende-foraldrar-i-svenska-medier/
Single Parents in Swedish Media: Representations of “Lone” Parenthood 2010-2020. (P19-0790:1)
Helena Wahlström Henriksson (PI)
Project aims and development: The purpose of the project was to investigate various Swedish media’s representations of single parents during the period 2010-2020. The research has answered the basic research questions, and more precise new questions have also been formulated for each sub-study. Among them are, for example, questions about how cooperation between separated parents is portrayed, the time dimensions of single parenthood, and how class and respectability are portrayed in different media. In each sub-study/publication during the project years, we have focused on one specific media form at a time: news press, film, television, or literature. Over time, we have also been able to refer to our previous studies and make comparisons between different media/genres.
Implementation: During the project’s three years, we have collaborated closely with data collection, analysis, writing, presentations and publications. In year 1, a student assistant was hired on an hourly basis to help with the collection of news press data via the Mediearkivet. The researchers have held intensive 3 day work meetings approximately twice per semester, with zoom meetings in between. The researchers have met with the reference group every semester (online during the pandemic; later in Uppsala). The Mid-term review at RJ took place in October 2021. In Spring 2022, the project researchers made a trip to London for meetings with scholars and work at the British Library. The researchers have also had “writing retreats” every semester to start new publications and complete/revise ongoing ones. Meetings have predominantly taken place in Uppsala, at the Center for Gender Research or at Hotel Clarion Gillet. Two writing weeks have been held at conference hotels in other locations (in Vadstena and Nynäshamn, both in 2023). The collaboration has worked very well and will continue after the end of the funded project period, with further conference presentations in 2024 (Sociologidagarna in Gothenburg, Nordic Sociology Association in Norrköping, and European Sociology Association in Porto). Furthermore, the initial plan to do comparative studies of representations across several media forms was not feasible as a first step, in article publications, but will be undertaken in a next step, as we are co-writing a book that summarizes and synthesizes all the results of the project (planned publication 2025).
COVID-19 effects: internationalization has taken place both via online conferences and live meetings; scientific contacts as well. Due to COVID-19, internationalization could not be undertaken according to the initial plan, and therefore the project was granted an extended time for use of internationalization funding, until September 2024.
A brief reflection on the 3 most important findings of the project
Different media and different genres contain different images of single parents – differences that relate to gender/gender, class, ethnicity, age/stage of life, etc., as well as to how the concept is charged with meaning (as linked to stigma, normalization, vulnerability, resilience, etc.). Different types of single parents, and different family situations figure differently depending on the media form. The middle-class woman dominates television series, while economically disadvantaged mothers are more common in the daily press. When single parents are portrayed as individuals rather than as a collective in the daily press, there is a greater breadth in terms of socioeconomic status and ethnicity/race for single fathers than for single mothers.
The "normalization" of single parenthood in Sweden figures in the media representations - sometimes it is confirmed, sometimes it is questioned. The daily press frequently writes about single parents, but never attach social or moral stigma to this family form. In the daily press, the most common reference to single parents as a collective is to poor, vulnerable mothers, but these are portrayed as fighting and hard-working heroes, not as social problems. Single fathers are also portrayed as good at balancing family and work and as responsible everyday parents. But single fathers in literary depictions feel a lack of legitimacy as parents and worry about losing contact with the children. Single parents in film fail as parents in that they cannot care or provide for, nor communicate with, their children, and often, films portray parent-child contact as broken. Hence, in film and literature, the “normality” of single parenthood is questioned.
The single parent in the media can confirm or undermine dominant societal discourses, and we see clear tendencies regarding in which media this occurs. Representations in the daily press are more in line with Swedish family policy and gender equality ideals in texts about fathers, than in texts about mothers. Both single mothers and fathers as individuals are mainly described positively as struggling, hard-working good parents, i.e. in line with ideas about single parents as “ordinary taxpayers.” Other media: film, television and literature, where the focus on problems and family dysfunction is strong, go against these dominant social discourses, thereby questioning them.
New research questions generated by/during the project:
Questions about how co-parenting figures and is portrayed - and how it is connected to family situation, class, gender, ethnicity and age.
Questions about how time and temporalities figure in representations of single parenthood: the time of single parenthood – what are its beginnings? Does it have an end? Historical time and its significance for life as a single parent. Time in the life course and changes in single parenthood through different life stages.
Questions about the place of loneliness in the single-parent family: both the loneliness of the parent in the absence of supportive networks, and the loneliness of the single-parent family as the only one of its kind in the story – the isolated single parent is a common image across all media forms.
Dissemination of research results; collaborations and outreach
The results have been published and disseminated at scientific conferences nationally (e.g. the Swedish Sociology Association conference “Sociologidagarna” in 2022 and 2024) and internationally (e.g. International Association for Biography and Autobiography Studies/IABA (Turku 2022); conferences on motherhood in television and film (Maynooth 2021, 2022), the Nordic Sociology Association conference (Linköping/Norrköping 2024), and the European Sociology Association conference (Porto, 2024), in popular science lectures and in teaching within e.g. sociology programs, teacher training programs, and courses in gender studies, as well as via publications in both scientific and popular-science forms. The extent of dissemination exceeds the initial project plan.
We decided during Year 1 to edit and publish a popular science book, as well as write own chapters and an introduction to this volume. The members of the reference group, along with other researchers and authors, were also invited to contribute chapters. The book, Enförälderfamiljer ([One-Parent Families] Makadam 2023), is an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and multi-voiced contribution, with chapters that take their point of departure in either media representations, interviews, or the author’s personal experiences.
We have held seminars on parts of the project at, for example, Uppsala University, Linnaeus University, Jönköping University, Turun Yliopisto, Maynooth University, as well as guest lectures by HWH at Toronto Metropolitan University and Vilnius University. We have held open presentations to the general public at Uppsala city library, among other venues. An article in Uppsala Nya Tidning was published in 2023 on the occasion of the publication of the collection Enförälderfamilj. During the course of the project, we have had collaborations and valuable dialogues with individual researchers, e.g. Liz Podnieks (Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada), and Stella Bruzzi (UCL) as well as Sara de Benedictis (Brunel University) and Kate Gilchrist (LSE), and Vanessa May (Manchester University), and with researchers in Inter/National networks, for example: MotherNet (EU Twinning); as well as the Nordforsk-funded network NORPA; and with The FAMKIN Research group at Uppsala University. A project homepage developed at the outset, and has been continuously updated; OA publications are also available via this website. The final international Symposium was held in Uppsala in September 2023; the event was very successful in terms of new networking, research exchange, and generating new research ideas.
Link to project webpage:
https://www.gender.uu.se/forskning/projekt/ensamstaende-foraldrar-i-svenska-medier/