A Symposium on Youth Perspectives
29 October 2025
8:30am to 4pm
Wits School of Governance
Heartlines’ latest research, Fathers Matter: Amplifying Children’s Unfiltered Perspectives on Fatherhood, captures the voices of 10–16-year-olds on fatherhood, gender roles, masculinities, and gender-based violence (GBV).
The findings are provocative, sobering, and urgent:
- Children are reframing what fatherhood and masculinity should look like.
- They want fathers and social fathers who show up - present, caring, and protective.
- This reveals alarming levels of violence in schools and homes, signalling an urgent need for change.
This symposium is an invitation to:
- Join policymakers, academics, practitioners, media, and civil society leaders in dialogue.
- Shape strategies, commitments, and a future research and policy agenda that respond to the findings.
- Engage directly with children’s voices and perspectives.
Read the report
This is a powerful report about children’s perspectives on fatherhood in South Africa. The report, Fathers Matter: Amplifying children’s voices about fatherhood, offers unique insights into how children between the ages of 10 and 16 perceive “good” and “bad” fathers and highlights the impact of father absence on youth behaviours and social dynamics.
The findings show that, across backgrounds, South African children associate a “good” father not only with providing basic needs but also with offering love, emotional support, and active involvement in their lives. However, many children experience or witness contradictory behaviours where fathers – ideally seen as protectors – are instead sources of fear and insecurity due to acts of physical, verbal, and even sexual violence. The research sheds light on a disturbing cycle: children replicate these behaviours, including substance abuse and violence, particularly in school settings.
