Impact of Father Absence on Women’s Emotional Development

Father absence is a pressing problem and has a devastating effect on our society, including our girls and women.

We have all seen examples of women who became strong, successful, and happy despite growing up without a father.

But there are many other examples of women who were deeply hurt by the absence of their fathers. Even women who seem well adjusted may suffer ill effects from a childhood where their fathers were not present.

Father absence is a pressing problem and has a devastating effect on our society, including our girls and women.

Fathers give daughters a sense of self, security, and the comfort of healthy love. When those healthy father-daughter relationships are missing, then those daughters often look elsewhere to fill the void.

Many girls grow into insecure women because of father absence. They internalize the absence of the father and take it to mean something is wrong with them. As a result, they spend years – sometimes their whole lives – chasing the approval of their fathers or men in general. This can cause them to get into relationships with men who abuse them, neglect them, or treat them poorly.

Many women develop low self-esteem as a result of father absence. They exhibit behaviors that are the result of this low self-esteem: They date men who abuse them; they accept harsh treatment, etc.

For other women, the impact of father absence shows up in how they relate to other men. They distrust those men and can never seem to develop a healthy relationship with any man, as they attribute to these men negative qualities resulting from the father absence they experienced.

Still, other women attempt to form relationships with men but find these relationships with men difficult and this difficulty shows in their interactions. They lash out in anger, are excessively suspicious, etc. The anger they hold toward their absent fathers pushes them to behave toward other men in the same way.

Father absenteeism becomes a complex contributing factor to how women see themselves, men, and the world around them. Some women recognize the cause of their issues and are able to deal with it, but others do not know their anger, sense of loss, and anxiety all stem from the relationship – or, in this case, lack of relationship – with the father.

Addressing these very real emotions and conclusions can help women, as well as the families they create. Father absence is a serious factor – or direct cause – of many of the emotional and social issues some women have.

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Kenneth L. Osborne is the author of When Mama Is Daddy: The Male Crisis and Challenge of Ending Father Absence. He speaks on father absence, drug abuse and behavior, and the social impact of fatherlessness.