Introduction

Melissa Moseley/Lionsgate

Last month, the mommy wars took front and center with Time magazine’s provocative cover story that asked “Are You Mom Enough?” The month before, Room for Debate discussed whether mothering was bad for feminism, the assertion of Elisabeth Badinter’s “The Conflict.”

Throughout these and earlier spats about raising children, men were largely absent: unheard and unmentioned. But fathers have stepped up. Today’s dads can change diapers and shake up the P.T.A. So why hasn’t the national conversation evolved along with them? Why do we still think of “parenting” as “mothering”?

Kevin Noble Maillard, a professor of law at Syracuse University (and a new dad), suggested this discussion.