Where Are Male Adoptees?
Society needs to hear from you
Glance at adoption websites and organizations, adoptee organizations, and adoption professionals. Listen to the public conversation around adoption. What do you notice? The absence of men.
Unlike most of society, where men are dominant voices and women are taking their voice back — men were never strongly represented in the adoption arena.
There are a few reasons:
▹ Women dominate the adoption universe. The heads of adoption agencies, the leaders of adoptive parent groups, the social workers, the academics studying adoption, the adoptee-led support groups, the adoptee bloggers, the list continues. Women lead most adoption groups, initiatives, and organizations.
▹ Adoption language targets women, birthmothers, adoptive mothers, etc. Biological fathers are rarely mentioned. There isn’t much of a focus on male adoptees either.
Furthermore, adoptive dads are not blogging about their family experiences.
▹ Though adoption is marketed and discussed as a family issue, it’s mostly a women’s issue. Take a glance at women’s magazines. You will see adoption stories in them.
I’ve never seen adoption in a ‘typical’ men’s magazine, like GQ, Men’s Health, or something similar. Fathers are…
