Fatherlessness

“Fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation…It is the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from crime to adolescent pregnancy to child sexual abuse, to domestic violent against women… we seldom acknowledge the underlying phenomenon that binds together these otherwise disparate issues: the flight of males from their children’s lives…Masculinity became less domesticated, defined less by effective paternity and more by individual ambition and achievement.”

- David Blankenhorn, Fatherlessness in America, 1995
From 'The Four Pillars of a Man's Heart' by Stu Weber

I‘d like to clarify that sometimes having fathers around is as harmful as not having them there at all. To me, fatherlessness is not a word to describe the absence of being, but rather the absence of character role model. Another word for fatherlessness would be a lack of manhood, a lack of applied masculinity. True fatherhood has really very little to do with one’s biological association, but everything to do with responsible character molding and modeling. It is about looking out for the next generation rather than looking out for themselves.