5 Important Things Feminist Dads Want You To Know

5 Things Feminist Dads Want You To Know

Fatherhood and feminism: when you combine the two, you get something really, really special.

To mark HuffPost UK Lifestyle's month of Celebrating Parents, we thought we'd champion feminist fathers who are preaching nothing but great things.

Here are five pearls of wisdom they want you to know...

"I have a daughter who is 14 months old. I have a son who is 5 years old," writes Tony Posnanski on The Good Men Project. "I want my son to follow his dreams. I want my daughter to follow her dreams. I want my son to do well in school. I want my daughter to do well in school.

"I want my daughter to have every opportunity my son has. Not more. Not less. Equal. That is feminism.

"It is not about feeling one sex deserves more. It is realising that both sexes deserve the same treatment and doing things to make sure that happens."

"Strive to maintain a healthy, egalitarian, co-parenting relationship with your child’s mother," says Tyler Osterhaus on his blog, Feminist Fatherhood. "Share power with your child’s mother and all women.

"Both mothers and fathers bring unique but equally important perspectives to the parenting process. A well-rounded parent is a provider and protector, as well as a nurturer and a caregiver. Nurture the nurturer in yourself."

"During the years one thing I have NEVER done, never will do, and hate being accused of doing, is babysitting my own children," writes Ashley Beolens in a blog on HuffPost UK.

"I don't, can't and won't, I'm their dad not some spotty teenager trying to make a few quid and maybe get some alone time with a girl (I remember those days).

"So why then, do some people think it is okay to say this to me when I am out with my kids? What part of my anatomy is it that prevents me being equal to the mothers out with their children?

"You know the mothers who are parenting their kids and not babysitting? I'm doing exactly the same, deal with it!"

Mark Bryce is a father of two boys. He used to believe that feminism was solely a woman's issue, but his thoughts on that have shifted.

Regardless of the fact his kids are male, feminism is still hugely important to him.

"As a middle-aged man I never felt feminism had anything to do with me," he wrote in a blog on being a feminist dad. "It was the woman's battle for equality. Whilst I may have agreed with their ethos and end goals it was, and always would be their fight.

"It was only when listening to Emma Watson's amazing speech to the UN that I realised how wrong I was. Inequality is every bit my problem. Every bit my responsibility. And as the father of two boys probably more so."

"Whether one calls oneself a feminist, it is undeniable that feminism and feminists have made the modern dad possible," says New York-based writer Ariel Chesler in his column for Time.

"Feminism taught me to be comfortable and proud of who I am, and encouraged self-determination. These are traits we all want to pass along to our kids.

"But, more significantly, feminism benefited us dads greatly by encouraging increased involvement in our children’s lives, and forever changed our roles."

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