Is it true that courts favor mothers in child custody decisions?
While it remains a common belief that courts favor, or are even biased for, mothers in child custody disputes, this is not the case. The belief stems from past practices and trends in court. When divorce became more common in the 1970s, society, including the judges within it, assumed a gendered division of labor within households. Before women entered the workforce in large numbers, men were expected to be the providers. Women, on the other