Why do women win custody more often than men? While I would think this fact is fairly common place, here’s a cite that supports this idea:
So why is this? What justification do courts provide for this significant gap in male/female custody?
The woman in a marriage is more often the primary caretaker of the children, even if both parents work outside the home. This is particularly true when the children are younger. Custody decisions are often based on which parent is more able to continue the support structure the child already has.
In a related question,
Why is it so rare that men are awarded alimony?
The only cases where men receive alimony is when the woman is fairly wealthy and the man is poor.
While it would be common for a man who makes $40k a year to have to pay alimony to his unemployed ex-wife,
it would be extremely rare to see a wife who makes $40K a year to have to pay alimony to the unemployed ex-husband.
Once upon a time, fathers always got sole custody in a divorce–but divorce was very, very rare back then. If a women wanted out of a marriage, she often faced the prospect of losing her children, for they were considered the father’s legal property.
Anyway, now things are biased in the other direction. Culturally, mothers are considered the appropriate primary caregivers, and though the fact is that in most families the mother is indeed doing the bulk of the child-related work, custody is frequently given to a clearly unfit mother over the objections of the father. Because right now, mothers are sort of the default. That does seem to be changing, albeit slowly and patchily; it’s easier now for a father to get custody than it was, and more-or-less equal joint arrangements are more common.
As I understand it, they look at the two salaries and base the alimony amount on a formula. Alimony is only paid if one party makes something like 20% more than the other party. Usually, for a variety of reasons, the man will be making a higher salary.
Haj
The way you have worded your question, by asking why women “win” custody more often, and what justification do the courts provide for the significant gap, seems to imply that an equal number of women and men ask for custody, and that women are much more likely to be awarded it. I may have missed it in the article, but I didn’t see anything that addressed that specific issue. Many more women are given custody, that is true, but how many men fight for custody?
In my circle of friends who are divorced with children, the majority of couples agreed that the mother would get custody. It was a joint decision, the fathers didn’t fight it. They felt it was best for the kids for them to stay with the mom. In the cases where the fathers fought for custody, they won. They fought for custody because the mom had a drug or alcohol problem and the father did not want the kids in that enviornment, and the courts agreed.
I know my little circle of friends doesn’t really prove anything, but I think it represents what most often happens. I would like to see some statistics, but I think most times the divorcing couple agree who will have custody before it goes to court. I think most fathers agree to the mother having custody, or joint custody. In the cases where the father fights for custody, it is because of extreme cases where he feels the mother in not caple of caring for the kids properly. I don’t think that happens that often, so the result would be a large majority of women have custody of the kids.
If I missed it somewhere in the article that in awarding custody, an equal number of men to women ask for custody, but the men are denied it 80% of the time, then please point it out, because I would find this very disturbing.
So I don’t think think as a rule the courts have anything to justify. There are some exceptions of course, where the court may have unjustly favored the mother, but as a rule I just don’t think that a large % of men fight to take their kids away from their mothers.
So the question might be why do most couples feel that the mother is the best one to have custody. Why is it that most fathers don’t fight for full custody?
Fair enough Grits and Hard Toast. I worded my original question because that’s the general generalization that I’ve heard.
So, a new question, have there been any studies that demonstrate the percentage of husbands who win custody when fighting for it?
I can’t support this, but it’s always been my suspicion that this question (a major point raised by the nascent men’s movement) hides the fact that women are more likely to seek custody. How often is custody determined by courts anyway? My parents divorced when I was young, and they worked out joint custody on their own. I don’t know anyone whose parents fought a custody battle (and I know a lot of children of divorced parents) - so I imagine that custody is often worked out amicably.
What do these numbers say? Do they only address cases in which custody is contested (they don’t explicitly state the source of the numbers.) They don’t give enough information to fairly evaluate their claims - and that seems to be a common feature of discussions of child custody.
I have been married for 41 years and raised 5 children. Divorce has never been a subject, but if it were I would have turned custodity over to my wife in a minute (no questions asked or objections made). I understand that some women aren’t fit but they are the exception. A father is important to a child and the mother should not deprive the husband (same objections as above apply) of contacting the children and sharing in the children’s lives. If there is a problem it is that divorce is too easy an answer, not that women are given custody. If you married such a horrible woman that she isn’t fit to raise your children try and figure out what character flaws caused that to happen.
Comments not aimed at anyone in particular, just everyone in general.
What question? I asked if there were any studies that indicated what percentage of men and women receive child support in a court battle, which is different from what you seemed to think I asked.
In general, the mothers are more interested than the fathers in having custody of the kids. It is also true, and generally acknowledged (dependent on country), that there is a bias against men who seek to gain custody of their children as many legal systems assume the mother, in the absence of negligence and addictions, is more likely to raise the children better.
I was responding to your topic in the OP. To whit:
Perhaps I was unclear, since I quoted something I was directly addressing in my reply. It was just a general statement about the way the numbers presented (as on this website) and the arguments presented by those with axes to grind on the issue (I’m sure you’ve run into that in your research) seem (to me) to be calculated to generate particular reactions while obscuring the actual processes involved.
You asked in another thread about how to properly in-line cite, as for a paper, a website whose authorship is unknown, in reference to the same website. I hope you’re using this thread because you’ve become more interested in the topic through the course of the paper you’re writing on the subject, and not because you hope that the SDMB’s research and argument tools will help you craft a stronger essay.
I asked if there were any studies. I did not ask for any opinions, especially yours, as indicated by all of my questions being posted in General Questions. Any opinions that have thusly surfaced were a completely unintentional consequence of posting my original question. I have no interest in using any fellow doper’s ideas or concepts, again, as illustarted by be putting this in General Questions. Furthermore, I turned my paper in yesterday, before I asked my follow up questions. which also clearly did not seek opinions.
Frankly, your claim is not only unfounded, but has no place in GQ.
I’m also at a loss as to your answering my OP when you quoted one of my follow-up questions seeking clarification on a specific matter, one of which you did not address in your reply, hence my confusion.
I’ll ask it again:
Have there been any studies that indicated what percentage of men and women receive child support in a court battle?