Are Men unfairly treated by the Court in Parenting Matters?
By Bianca McDuff - Senior Lawyer
Having practised in Family Law for several years, I hear from fathers that the Court is biased against men. Whilst the Family Law Act is written in gender-neutral terms & does not contain any considerations that specifically favour mothers, the statistics from various studies of post-separation parenting arrangements seem to suggest favouritism by Courts towards women. In a survey of separated parents in 2014[ the most common post-separation parenting arrangement was for the children to live with their mother (at least 66% of nights in a year), with the next most common arrangement was for children to live with the mother & spend time with the father during the day only. A more recent 2019 study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies showed that in the small portion of cases determined by a Judge: - 45% of Court Orders provide for sole parental responsibility by the mother; and 11% of Orders provided for sole parent responsibility by the father. It should be noted that it is difficult to accurately calculate the “typical” parenting arrangements as approximately 3% of parenting matters go to Court. Perhaps it's the traditional family role disadvantaging men in parenting. Whilst changing, historically speaking, women were seen as primary caregivers for children, while men were seen as the breadwinners.
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